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Immigration Enforcement made 49 arrests across three days of targeted action at UK ports, in a week of activity aimed at criminal gangs smuggling people from Ireland into the UK. Between Tuesday 22 and Thursday 24 September, law enforcement agencies patrolled seaports, airports, roads and rail networks across Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales, the Home Office announced on 29 September 2026.
The action sits under Operation Comby, a multi agency effort targeting people who have passed illegally from Ireland to the UK. The Home Office says it has now led to the arrest of more than 250 organised criminals and immigration offenders since the election, 113 of whom have been removed.
At a Glance
- Immigration Enforcement made 49 arrests across three days of action at UK ports between 22 and 24 September 2026.
- Operation Comby has led to more than 250 arrests of organised criminals and immigration offenders since the election, with 113 removed and almost £500,000 in cash seized.
- The operation targets abuse of the Common Travel Area, the arrangement that lets British and Irish citizens move freely between the two countries.
- The Home Secretary has announced plans to double the Immigration Enforcement budget by 2028/29 and increase workforce numbers by 60%.
- The Home Office says more than 80,000 immigration offenders and foreign criminals have been removed from the UK since the election.
What Is Operation Comby and Why Does the Irish Border Matter?
The Common Travel Area is a long standing arrangement between the UK and Ireland. It allows British and Irish citizens to move freely between the two countries, and it is that freedom the Home Office says organised gangs are trying to exploit. Operation Comby is designed to stamp out that abuse, using an intelligence led approach to disrupt networks that move people through Ireland and on to the UK.
It runs alongside a separate, routine effort. Operation Gull provides regular deployments across Northern Irish ports and airports to tackle everyday misuse of the Common Travel Area, and has led to almost 1,000 arrests in the last year, according to the Home Office.
Eddy Montgomery, Immigration Enforcement's Director of Enforcement, Compliance and Crime, described Comby as part of the wider crackdown. "Immigration crime can take many forms, but at the heart of what we do is protecting vulnerable people and ensuring the criminal gangs who exploit them are brought down," he said.
What Happened at Belfast Airport and Belfast Port
The Home Office gave two examples from Northern Ireland. At Belfast International Airport, two Romanian women were arrested as illegal entrants after travelling from Ireland to Northern Ireland without the required permissions. Further checks identified them as possible victims of people trafficking, and officers gained intelligence on the criminals who had pushed them into the journey. One woman was detained for removal to Romania. The other voluntarily returned to Ireland.
The second case began with intelligence sharing. Belfast Harbour Police stopped a vehicle at Belfast Port carrying four Romanian nationals, and a search found counterfeit Apple products worth £130,000. All four were arrested and now face removal from the UK.
Operation Comby at a Glance
- 49 arrests were made across three days of action, from Tuesday 22 to Thursday 24 September 2026.
- Activity covered seaports, airports, roads and rail networks in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales.
- More than 250 arrests have been made under the operation since the election, with 113 removals and almost £500,000 in cash seized.
How Many Arrests Has Northern Ireland Seen Since 2024?
The operation builds on a longer run of activity in Northern Ireland. Between July 2024 and June 2026, Immigration Enforcement carried out almost 3,000 enforcement visits there, resulting in more than 2,400 arrests. Nearly 1,000 people have since been returned, almost 500 of them to Ireland.
Those figures cover enforcement in Northern Ireland generally, and the Home Office has not said how many relate specifically to smuggling gangs as opposed to individual immigration offences. The announcement also sits alongside a wider 74% surge in organised immigration crime arrests, which the Home Office described in its summary of the news story but did not break down further.
Immigration Enforcement Budget to Double by 2028/29
The Home Secretary has announced that she will double the Immigration Enforcement budget by 2028/29 and boost workforce numbers by 60%. The Home Office says this will mean tens of thousands more raids, arrests and removals of people with no right to be in the UK.
Anna Turley, Minister for Border Security and Asylum, said "We are bearing down on these organised criminal gangs who operate on wicked lies and deception. Individuals who think they can get round our laws will quickly find out that they will not be successful."
The government says it has already begun restoring control and order to the border, pointing to the removal of more than 80,000 immigration offenders and foreign criminals since the election. The announcement did not set out a timetable for how the extra funding will be spent year by year, or where the additional staff will be deployed.
Will the Irish Border Crackdown Lead to Prosecutions?
For now, the published picture is one of arrests and removals rather than prosecutions. The Home Office has said the operation aims to disrupt organised immigration crime, so charging decisions and convictions linked to the gangs themselves will be the clearest sign of whether the intelligence led approach reaches the people running the routes.
The two Belfast cases also show how enforcement and protection overlap. Both women at the airport were flagged as possible trafficking victims, and officers gained intelligence on the criminals who pushed them into the journey. As Montgomery put it, the work is as much about protecting vulnerable people as it is about removals.
Key Takeaways
- Immigration Enforcement made 49 arrests across three days of action at UK ports between 22 and 24 September 2026.
- Operation Comby has produced more than 250 arrests since the election, 113 removals and almost £500,000 in seized cash.
- Operation Gull, a routine deployment across Northern Irish ports and airports, has led to almost 1,000 arrests in the last year.
- Between July 2024 and June 2026, Immigration Enforcement made more than 2,400 arrests in Northern Ireland and nearly 1,000 people have been returned.
- The Home Secretary plans to double the Immigration Enforcement budget by 2028/29 and increase workforce numbers by 60%.