UK launches world-first sanctions regime targeting gangs smuggling illegal migrants to Britain

LONDON: The UK govt has introduced sanctions for the first time on people who facilitate smuggling illegal migrants to the UK.

The new sanctions regime will target anyone involved in assisting illegal immigration to the UK wherever they are in in the world.

It is the world’s first sanctions regime targeted at gangs involved in people smuggling and organised immigration crime, as well as their enablers.

From Wednesday, those involved face having their assets frozen, being shut off from the UK financial system and banned from travelling to the UK.

The first wave of sanctions will target a range of wrongdoing, from the supply of small boats being used on cross-Channel journeys to the trade in fake passports, as well as middlemen facilitating payments through hawala networks, to the gang leaders themselves. The sanctions make it illegal for the UK financial system and any UK business to engage with those designated.

As of July 20, 23,534 people have crossed the channel in small boats this year, an increase of 50% on the same period last year.

Dr Madeleine Sumption, deputy chair of the migration advisory committee, told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme that she questioned what impact the sanctions will have. “The govt’s hope is it will make it harder for certain people smugglers to operate, but the impacts may depend on the cooperation of other countries where smugglers are operating and to what extent they help. I will be surprised if it would be a game-changer for the industry as a whole just because there are so many people involved in this industry that targeting people individually is probably only going to have impacts around the margins.”

MP Chris Philp, shadow home secretary, said: “The truth is you don’t stop the Channel crossings by freezing a few bank accounts in Baghdad or slapping a travel ban on a dinghy dealer in Damascus. Swathes of young men are arriving daily, in boats bought online, guided by traffickers who laugh at our laws and cash in on our weakness. We must deport illegal immigrants immediately on arrival, it is the only way to end the pull factor and deter crossings.”