Corrupt officials, gang leaders and overseas suppliers of small boat parts used in Channel crossings have been warned they face asset freezes and UK travel bans as part of a major crackdown on illegal immigration. Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Tuesday confirmed sweeping new sanctions targeting individuals and organisations driving the people-smuggling trade – including those helping to fund, equip or conceal Channel operations.
The measures are aimed at a wide network of facilitators, from those providing dinghies and forged documents to “middlemen” laundering payments via the Hawala system – a lawful but loosely regulated money transfer network often linked to smuggling activity. Sanctions take effect from Wednesday, with more than 20 designations expected in the initial phase. All those named will be publicly listed, making it illegal for UK companies and banks to do business with them.
Speaking on Monday, Mr Lammy said: “For too long, criminal gangs have been lining their corrupt pockets and preying on the hopes of vulnerable people with impunity as they drive irregular migration to the UK. We will not accept this status quo.
“That’s why the UK has created the world’s first sanctions regime targeted at gangs involved in people smuggling and driving irregular migration, as well as their enablers.
“From tomorrow, those involved will face having their assets frozen, being shut off from the UK financial system and banned from travelling to the UK.”
The move runs alongside new legislation in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, designed to boost enforcement powers for police, border agents and the National Crime Agency.
Sanctions will target transnational organised crime groups by freezing bank accounts, seizing property and blocking access to the UK’s financial system to disrupt their operations.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “It will allow us to target the assets and operations of people smugglers wherever they operate, cutting off their funding and dismantling their networks piece by piece.
“Through the Border Security Command and key partners like the National Crime Agency, we are strengthening our ties with other nations to tackle this global problem.
“Together, we are sending a clear message that there is no hiding place for those who exploit vulnerable people and put lives at risk for profit.”
The announcement came hours after Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp claimed “this year has been by far the worst ever” for immigration, with 23,000 migrants crossing the Channel so far.
Asking an urgent question in the House of Commons, he added: “Numbers in asylum hotels are now higher than at the time of the election. This is a border security crisis, but it is also a public safety crisis, especially for women and girls.
“Many nationalities crossing, for example, Afghans commit up to 20 times more sex offences than average.
“Louise Casey made that point in her report, and now we have press reporting on the huge scale of the crime committed by illegal immigrants housed in the Government’s own asylum hotels.”
Mr Philp continued: “Those crimes included multiple cases of rape, sexual assault, violence, theft and arson, including the case in Epping she referred to where a 38-year-old Ethiopian man has been charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
“An illegal immigrant in Oxford has been convicted of raping a 20-year-old woman in a churchyard. A Sudanese man was convicted of strangling and attempting to rape a woman in a nightclub toilet in Wakefield.”