Cross-Border Payments: How To Evolve From Slower, Domestic Roots
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Daily Mail
19 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Why government plans to crackdown on people smugglers with sanctions could have little impact on stopping small boat crossings
The Government's move to introduce sanctions for people-smugglers is 'an obvious PR exercise' that will do little to stop small boat crossings, experts warned today. Opening a new front in Labour 's attempt to 'smash the gangs', anyone involved in helping people arrive in dinghies can now be targeted with asset freezes and travel bans. Businessmen who supply the boats themselves, fraudsters who make fake passports, middlemen who transfer cash and even corrupt police are all likely to be targeted under the plan. The first wave of sanctions will come into force tomorrow with more than 20 people named and shamed, making it illegal for British businesses and banks to deal with them. However, specialists in immigration and sanctions enforcement have pointed out that most smugglers either do not use traditional banking methods or do so beyond the reach of UK authorities. Many smuggling networks are known to use the hawala system, an ancient banking method that allows small boat migrants to pay smugglers - and the criminals to compensate their associates - without leaving any official record. The Global Irregular Migration and Trafficking in Persons sanctions regime has been introduced through secondary legislation and will be debated by Parliament after the summer. Heralding the move, Foreign Secretary David 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. 'It is our moral duty and a key part of our Plan for Change to do all we can to smash these gangs and secure Britain's borders. '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.' But Roger Gherson, managing partner and sanctions expert at Gherson Solicitors, dismissed the sanctions as political theatre. 'Proposals to use these on people smugglers is nothing more than bluster and an obvious PR exercise for the Government to be seen to be dealing with the problem,' he told MailOnline. 'Most of these smugglers will no doubt operate outside of normal banking system in any case, and most probably in cash. To divert limited police and National Crime Agency (NCA) resources to this will only stretch our much-needed resources further.' How the Hawala system helps pay for crossings 1 - Smuggler gives migrant in one country, such as Iraq, a list of trusted money transfer agents (Hawaladars). They give cash to them alongside the smuggler's details and a code. 2 - When a UK-based smuggler wants their money, they contact a linked hawaladar in Britain and give them a secret code to release the funds. 3 - When someone wants to send money from the UK to Iraq, the debt balances out - meaning no actual money has to be sent across borders. Dr Peter Walsh, of the University of Oxford's Migration Observatory, said the measures were 'unlikely to be a game changer' in small boat crossings - not least because gangs usually operate in foreign countries. 'They might be restricted in the UK, but if someone can just go elsewhere, then that defeats the whole purpose of the sanctions,' he told the i. 'You can ban people from opening bank accounts in the UK… but they'll open a bank account elsewhere. 'A lot of the financing for smuggling operates outside of the traditional banking system, using wireless transfers that are notoriously difficult to clamp down on.' An insight into how smuggling gangs move money away from the prying eyes of officials came late last year with the prosecution of two Kurds - Dilshad Shamo, 41, and Ali Khdir, 40 - for organising a global people smuggling operation from an apparently ordinary car wash in South Wales. Posing as legitimate businessmen, Shamo, who was born in Iraq, and Khdir, originally from Iran, transported migrants across Europe in cars, lorries and boats in a major conspiracy coordinated via WhatsApp. Central to their operations was the hawala system that involves the use of trusted agents, known as hawaladars. Rather than carrying out real cash transfers, hawala works through balanced debt. Someone wishing to send money from one country to the UK can leave the cash with a local hawaladar, with the pair agreeing a password. The recipient of the funds will then collect them from a linked hawaladar in Britain. When someone wants to send the same amount from the UK to Iraq the debt evens out - meaning no actual money ever has to be sent. For Shamo and Khdir, hawala gave them a way to transfer money without leaving an official record, with hawaladars in Iraq and Istanbul receiving cash from migrants making their way to Europe. Once a deposit was obtained, they would receive an OK for migrants to be moved by a specified route or within a timeframe - often as part of a full service package covering transportation to the UK from the migrants' countries or origin. The pair were eventually found out when the NCA uncovered their roles in a much larger organised crime group and were able to source messages exposing their exploitation of the hawala system. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the sanctions would not deter people from crossing the Channel in small boats, with a record 23,000 arriving so far this year. '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,' he said. '2025 has been the worst year on record for illegal boat crossings, with over 23,000 already this year and more than 46,000 since Labour came to power. The gangs aren't scared - because Labour won't detain, deport or even pretend to enforce the border. We must deport illegal immigrants immediately on arrival, it is the only way to end the pull factor and deter crossings.'
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Labour has wrecked the economy… here's how YOU might be made to pay – from fuel duty to income tax
IF Rachel Reeves was heading into Parliament's summer break with a huge headache, things just got a whole lot worse. The Chancellor woke up yesterday to a storm around Government borrowing hitting £20.7billion last month. 5 The figure — higher than the £17.1billion forecast for the period — was fuelled by a rise in the interest charges on government debt. And now, instead of blue skies and sunshine over the summer, Ms Reeves will have to deal with dark clouds gathering over the Treasury. She has said that 'the world has changed' since her previous Budget, with Donald Trump's global tariffs creating uncertainty. But the harsh reality is that a series of decisions this Government made has wrecked what was always going to be a fragile recovery. The decision to increase NI contributions for employers had a devastating impact on expansion and hiring plans — and wrecked confidence. Anger was also levelled at her and Sir Keir Starmer for talking the country down when Labour first came to power, as they painted a gloomy economic outlook for Britain. This is all before businesses face the roll-out of the workers' rights package over the next two years, which will hit firms for £5billion, according to the Government's own impact assessment. And better prospects for working people appear doomed as wealth creators flee the country due to the high-tax environment, with around 16,500 expected to leave this year. Self-inflicted misery And this self-inflicted misery could be compounded further in the Budget this autumn as Ms Reeves tries to solve her spending shortfall. The financial black hole has only been made worse by this month's £5billion welfare reform U-turn and the £1.5billion she will now have to find after the partial retreat on Winter Fuel payments. Rachel Reeves FINALLY addresses Commons tears after she and Keir Starmer put on awkward show of unity Economists have already said that the Chancellor may have to fund a £30billion shortfall to meet her fiscal rules, and higher taxes are a near-certainty because Whitehall departments have already faced brutal cuts. Ms Reeves insisted yesterday that UK productivity was the problem. She said low investment levels compared to other G7 countries had led to UK output not keeping pace with our competitors. Reeves said it would be easy to cut capital spending, but these would be 'short-sighted, wrong decisions'. Here, we weigh up the Chancellor's options as she battles to balance the books, along with our likelihood rating of the moves being adopted later this year. 1. Wealth tax REEVES will fend off pressure from Labour MPs to bring in a wealth tax after being warned the well-off will flee the country. The Chancellor is set to reject calls for levies on property, investments and savings after Lord Kinnock called for a two per cent surcharge on assets worth more than £10million. But a host of other countries have already tried wealth taxes and they haven't raised the money needed to cover the public finances. Recent research shows that the UK has seen 18 billionaires quit these shores in the past two years alone. 1/5 2. Income tax threshold freeze IN one of the positives from last autumn's Budget, the Chancellor said there would be 'no extension' of the freeze in income tax and National Insurance thresholds. She said such a move would hurt working people and take more money from their payslips. But a freeze on income tax thresholds for the next two years would help Ministers raise around £8billion to fill the Budget black hole. The move would mean that even more people would be brought into the higher rate of tax, with the freeze due to come to an end in 2028. 4/5 3. Fuel duty on petrol & diesel 5 COST-of-living demands on households will pile the pressure on to freeze fuel duty at its current level for another year, rather than opting for a much-needed cut. Keeping the duty frozen and maintaining the 5p cut brought in back in 2022 will cost around £5billion a year. The Sun's successful Keep It Down campaign has saved motorists around £100billion since our battle with the Treasury started in 2011. The headline tax rate on petrol and diesel is currently 52.95p per litre. Back in October, Reeves said raising fuel duty would be the 'wrong choice for working people'. 2/5 4. Capital Gains Tax PROFITS made from sales on shares, investments and property could fall into play for raising funds for Treasury coffers. Reeves raised the top rate of CGT by four per cent at the last Budget, but experts say if it goes up again the move could backfire. Higher rate taxpayers pay 24 per cent CGT on the profits from sales, which contrasts with 40 per cent if it was earned income. Nimesh Shah, from accountancy firm Blick Rothenberg, said: 'People may choose to hold on to things like houses so as not to crystallise the tax bill — or they may simply leave the UK and crystallise the gains abroad.' 2/5 5. Tourist tax on hotel rooms 5 DEPUTY Prime Minister Angela Rayner is pushing for councils to be given new powers to bring in a tax on tourists. The Labour number two is facing opposition from Reeves to bring in a surcharge similar to those other countries impose on hotel rooms. But the Treasury is understood to be concerned that it would just hit struggling hospitality businesses that have already been badly bruised by the National Insurance raid. 4/5 6. Income tax, VAT and NI pledge LABOUR promised at the last election to protect 'working people' from tax hikes, but uncertainty has arisen about who could be protected. A key pledge was not to hike the main revenue raisers of income tax, VAT or National Insurance when the party came to power. Treasury minister Darren Jones has insisted anyone who gets a payslip is a 'working person'. It comes after Cabinet colleague Heidi Alexander said those on 'modest incomes' would be protected. 1/5 7. Small business taxes 5 A MILLION bosses who own small businesses and set up as limited company directors fear being clobbered on their pay. The business community worry the first £500 of dividend income being tax free could be hit in the autumn Budget. Craig Beaumont, of the Federation Of Small Businesses, said: 'The Labour Government must show if it stands behind the country's everyday entrepreneurs'. 2/5 8. Pensions tax relief raid 5 FUTURE pensioners could see the tax relief on pension contributions lowered to help raise funds. Higher-rate taxpayers get 40 per cent tax relief and basic-rate taxpayers get a lower 20 per cent rate. If the rate was brought down to 20 per cent it could mean around £15billion would be raised. The idea appeared to be rejected last year. But it could be back on the table as autumn approaches to bring in necessary funding. 4/5
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Insurance firms slammed for adding up to £51 a year to bills paid in monthly instalments
INSURANCE firms have been slammed for adding up to £51 a year to bills paid in monthly instalments. Customers may also pay more for the initial premium in a practice called 'double dipping'. The Financial Conduct Authority said monthly bill payers face APRs of 20-30 per cent, adding £19-£28 to home insurance and £35-£51 to car insurance costs. With about half of such policies paid monthly in 2023, many customers are hit with these extra costs simply because they can't afford annual payments. Consumer group Which? director Rocio Concha urged the FCA to crack down on 'bad practice'. She said too many customers are forced into higher costs out of financial necessity. Insurers claim the charges reflect the cost of the agreements. But the FCA's rules state that premiums must not be increased without a 'reasonable basis'. The Association Of British Insurers insists its members follow 'fair and transparent' principles. Earlier this year Which? revealed that some firms charge APRs comparable to credit card rates, with One Insurance Solution and The Insurance Factory imposing above 30 per cent. The FCA also found motor insurance claims were subject to delays, lack of oversight on outsourced services and high complaint levels. It is taking action against the companies involved. FOOD CRUNCH GROCERY bills are biting harder as food prices rise at their fastest rate in 18 months. Inflation hit 5.2 per cent this month, adding an average £275 to annual spending, Worldpanel data showed. Grocery spending rose 4.6 per cent in the 12 weeks to July 13, with online grocer Ocado leading growth at 11.7 per cent. Lidl grew 11.1 per cent while leader Tesco saw a 7.1 per cent sales increase. RANSOMS BAN PUBLIC sector organisations including the NHS, schools and councils will be banned from paying ransoms to cybercriminals. Security Minister Dan Jarvis pledged to 'smash the cybercriminal business model' and safeguard essential services. Businesses outside the ban must now tell authorities before paying ransoms. The new rules come after attacks on Marks & Spencer and the Co-Op. GOOD WORKS PAY OFF THE WORKS is celebrating success in its turnaround strategy as profits surged 20 per cent to £8.3million. The books and stationery retailer saw 6.4 per cent growth in like-for-like sales in its final quarter, driven by improved store standards and new products, despite a 2 per cent dip in annual revenues. Online sales struggled but store sales led the charge. Boss Gavin Peck highlighted strong trading in the new financial year, with sales up 5 per cent. Shares jumped 9.4 per cent yesterday
