UK to announce first people-smuggling sanctions in plan to 'smash the gangs'
The first measures are due to be unveiled on Wednesday and are seen as central to government plans to tackle criminal networks behind the crossings.
Individuals and companies are expected to be hit with asset freezes, travel bans, and restrictions from engaging with the UK's financial system under the sanctions.
It is understood the first tranche will include the names of around two dozen people accused of facilitating the trade or profiting from it - but the Migration Advisory Committee said the impact could be limited.
Its deputy chair, Dr Madeleine Sumption, said she would be "surprised" if the sanctions were a "game changer for the industry as a whole, and for the existence of the small boats route".
"There are so many people involved in the industry that targeting people individually is probably only going to have an impact around the margins," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
She added: "The impact is dependent to an extent on the co-operation of other countries where smugglers are operating."
Further sanctions packages are expected to include corrupt public officials and police officers, while the initial list published on Wednesday is intended to signal the type of targets the UK is pursuing as part of longer-term efforts to disrupt smuggling networks.
Sir Keir has pledged to "smash" people-smuggling gangs and made tackling illegal migration at source a key election pledge last year.
The government says criminal gangs are preying on the hopes of vulnerable people - but questions have been raised over how easily sanctions can be enforced, particularly given the international nature of smuggling networks.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the sanctions regime was "the first of its kind anywhere on the planet" and a key step in ending "the status quo" where criminal gangs prey on "vulnerable people with impunity".
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he added: "We are leading, others will follow."
As well as ringleaders in the trade, the sanctions are expected to target enablers like financial middlemen, who push money through Hawala networks, an informal system for organising money transfers often used by smugglers.
In the first six months of this year, more than 20,000 people crossed in small boats, an increase of nearly 50% on the previous year, according to Home Office data.
Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, said sanctions "may help disrupt some of the criminal networks profiting from human misery", but warned "enforcement alone will not stop dangerous Channel crossings" without safe alternatives.
Ministers say the new sanctions will target immigration crime gangs "where traditional law enforcement and criminal justice approaches cannot reach".
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the new sanctions regime is a "decisive step in our fight against the criminal gangs who profit from human misery".
"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," she said.
Responding to the plans, shadow home secretary Chris Philp 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."
The announcement comes after tensions in Essex at the weekend during a protest outside a hotel used to house asylum seekers, which was triggered after the arrest and charge of an asylum seeker on suspicion of alleged sexual assaults.
Police said the protest descended into "mindless thuggery" after flares and bottles were thrown towards officers.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage described the people protesting as "genuinely concerned families" and said parts of the country are "close... to civil disobedience on a vast scale".
Earlier this month, the government signed a "one in, one out" deal with France to return migrants to France for the equivalent number of legal asylum seekers, subject to security checks. — BBC
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21 hours ago
- Arab News
Starmer has chance to right a historical wrong
Feverish debate over recent months has centered on whether the UK and France will recognize the state of Palestine. French President Emmanuel Macron said in February that recognition was 'not a taboo.' France and Saudi Arabia were due to hold a conference on the two-state solution in New York in June, but it was delayed by Israel's aggression against Iran. Instead, it is being held this week. But the UK's position has been far from clear? Will Prime Minister Keir Starmer agree to join in or will he delay? No country in the world has more of a history of grappling with the issue of Palestine than Britain. It was, after all, the author of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, in which it pledged support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. It did not mention a second state in that declaration. London had to grapple with this as the mandatory power all the way up to 1947, when it handed the issue over to the newly formed UN to resolve. 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With the Oslo Accords of 1993, the expectation that a peace process would lead to a Palestinian state grew. Britain and other donor states invested heavily in this option and aid to the fledgling Palestinian Authority grew as a result. It was all under the rubric that this would lead to a two-state solution, a secure Israel side by side with a state of Palestine based on the 1967 borders. The Palestinian leadership shifted its strategy after the Second Intifada to pushing for recognition. The UNGA approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine in 2012 and the state of Palestine also started applying for membership of international institutions, including the International Criminal Court. In 2014, the UK government's position was outlined by then-Foreign Secretary William Hague, who said that London 'reserves the right to recognize a Palestinian state bilaterally at the moment of our choosing and when it can best help bring about peace.' 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Arab News
3 days ago
- Arab News
Trump arrives in Scotland for golf and bilateral talks as EU trade deal nears
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Arab News
3 days ago
- Arab News
UK, French and German leaders press Israel over Gaza aid after Macron backs a Palestinian state
LONDON: The leaders of Britain, France and Germany demanded Israel allow unrestricted aid into Gaza to end a 'humanitarian catastrophe,' after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that his country will become the first major Western power to recognize a Palestinian state. The joint statement, issued after a call between Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, called for an immediate ceasefire and said that 'withholding essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable,' though it broke no new diplomatic ground. The leaders said they 'stand ready to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire and a political process that leads to lasting security and peace for Israelis, Palestinians and the entire region,' but did not say what that action might be. 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Such a recognition would give that position substance,' said the letter, signed by legislators from several government and opposition parties. After the E3 call on Friday, Starmer condemned 'the continued captivity of hostages, the starvation and denial of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, the increasing violence from extremist settler groups, and Israel's disproportionate military escalation in Gaza.' He said that 'recognition of a Palestinian state' must be one of the steps on a pathway to peace. 'I am unequivocal about that. But it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis,' he said. More than 140 countries recognize a Palestinian state, including a dozen in Europe. But France is the first Group of Seven country and the largest European nation to take that step. Israel and the United States both denounced France's decision. Britain has long supported the idea of an independent Palestinian state existing alongside Israel, but has said recognition should come as part of a negotiated two-state solution to the conflict. Any such solution appears far off. There had been no substantive Israel-Palestinian negotiations for years even before the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and sparked the current war. Humanitarian crisis alarms Israel's allies The worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where hunger is spreading and children have starved to death, has caused alarm even among Israel's closest allies. Germany has traditionally been a particularly staunch ally of Israel in Europe, with relations rooted in the history of the Holocaust. It says recognizing a Palestinian state should be 'one of the concluding steps' in negotiating a two-state solution and it 'does not plan to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term.' But Berlin, too, has sharpened its tone recently, describing the Israeli military's actions in Gaza as unacceptable and pushing for greater humanitarian aid, but still appears to favor trying to influence Israeli officials by direct contact. The German government said in a statement on Friday that it is in a 'constant exchange' with the Israeli government and other partners on issues that include a ceasefire in Gaza and the need to drastically improve humanitarian aid. It said it is 'prepared to increase the pressure' if there is no progress, but didn't elaborate on how. Britain has halted some arms sales to Israel, suspended free trade talks and sanctioned far-right government ministers and extremist settlers, but Starmer is under intense pressure to do more. Also weighing on Starmer is his desire to maintain good relations with the US administration, which has strongly criticized France's decision. The British leader is due to meet President Donald Trump in the next few days while the president is in Scotland visiting two golf courses he owns there. Yossi Mekelberg, a Middle East expert at the international affairs think-tank Chatham House, said Macron's decision to defer finalizing recognition until September 'creates some space' for other countries to get on board. 'We know that the UK is close, but not there,' he said. 'This might encourage Starmer, who we know is not one to rush such a decision. … This might create some momentum, some dynamic, for the UK'
