Migrants who come to Britain in small boats face six months in prison or being deported

MIGRANTS who come to Britain in small boats face six months in prison or being deported under a new immigration blitz.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman will today promise to enact tough new rules to try and deter people from making the dangerous crossing.

Under new laws, it became illegal to cross the Channel to enter the UK on a small boat back in June.

But prosecutions have only so far focused on sick people smugglers organising the boats - and numbers are only in the low hundreds.

Ms Braverman will use her first keynote address to the Tory faithful in Birmingham to promise to "redouble" efforts to crackdown on illegal migration in a bid to win back public support.

She will make use of powers in the Nationality and Borders Act to prosecute those coming here illegally - meaning they face huge fines or even prison.

Gang leaders organising the crossings also face life behind bars.

The Home Sec will also commit to looking at the case for even more laws so that the UK Government can deport those who make the perilous crossing.

But the plans are likely to face another furious backlash from leftie lawyers in court.

Ms Braverman will also promise to work closer with France to increase interceptions of boats - which have reached a staggering 30,000 crossings in 2022 alone.

A new multi-million pound package of support is expected to be signed off within weeks to give more aid to their border force and police.

Theresa May's modern slavery blueprint rules are also expected to be ripped up in a bid to try and kick more foreign paedos and criminals out of the country.

Asylum seekers are to have to prove they were a victim of trafficking with a higher burden of proof under the shake up - to stop their cases clogging up courts.

The Home Sec will say Britain's immigration is not fair and our asylum system is being abused by evil gangs.

And she will say it's only right that people who can contribute should be able to come to Britain - ahead of an expected loosening of immigration rules to boost the economy to be announced later this month.

But in a softening of her position, she will also say immigration should be allowed if it helps "build relationships with our friends and allies".

She will say today as she celebrates being a child of immigrants from Kenya: "It’s right that we extend the hand of friendship to those in genuine need.

"This country has always done so. It did so for my father in the 1960s as a young man from Kenya.

"At the same time we should use our newfound control to deliver the kind of immigration that grows our economy, for example that helps projects that have stalled or builds relationships with our friends and allies.

"Parts of the system aren’t delivering.

"We need to end abuse of the rules and cut down on those numbers that aren’t meeting the needs of our economy."

Meanwhile, former Home Secretary Priti Patel is set to make a major conference intervention later today.

She will appear at a Conservative Voice event on the fringes - and make her first comments since stepping down from the top job last month.

And ministers will announce they are to give themselves the power to veto trans prisoners moving to women’s jails.