Revealed: the gang bosses and money movers sanctioned over small boats

Times

6 days ago

A company in China that sells small boats for Channel migrant crossings between France and the UK is among a list of organisations and individuals sanctioned by the UK.
The Foreign Office has named and shamed 25 individuals and entities as part of the first wave of sanctions targeting key figures in the people smuggling gangs that have ferried more than 170,000 migrants to the UK in small boats since 2018.
They will now face having any UK assets frozen and be banned from travelling to the UK, similar to how other sanction regimes work, such as those targeting Russian oligarchs.
Individuals named on the list include Alen Basil, a former police translator who went on to lead a large people smuggling network in Serbia. He is accused of terrorising refugees with the aid of corrupt policemen.
Basil was subsequently found to be living in a house in Serbia worth more than €1 million, bought with money extorted from countless desperate migrants.
Another sanctioned is Bledar Lala, an Albanian who is in control of the 'Belgium operations' of an organised criminal group that smuggles migrants from Belgium across the Channel.
Another is Muhammed Khadir Pirot, one of the 'middlemen' responsible for transferring cash paid by migrants through the ancient money transfer system known as hawala, which is used by people smugglers as a way of taking payments to minimise the risk of being caught.
• What I saw at the Channel smuggler trial that exposed their tactics
Two other individuals accused of operating hawala are Mariwan Jamal, who handles payments to people smugglers from migrants in Iraq, and Rafiq Shaqlaway, who is involved as an advisor to migrants looking to pay smugglers operating routes into Europe via Turkey.
The Chinese company sanctioned, Weihai Yamar Outdoors Product Co, is accused by the Foreign Office of explicitly advertising small boats on an online marketplace for the purpose of people smuggling.
Its website sells the same type of lightweight rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) that are used by people smugglers, in which migrants are packed and sent across the Channel from northern France to England.
It offers a 'Just in Time' service that promises products to 'arrive or be replenished exactly when needed in the production process'.
There are seven individuals on the sanctions list linked to Kurdish gangs, which dominate the people smuggling trade for cross-Channel migration.
They include Goran Assad Jalal, who formed part of an organised crime group that stowed migrants in refrigerated lorries, crossing from France into the UK on at least ten occasions between January and March 2019, and Hemin Ali Salih, who also helped smuggle migrants into the UK in the backs of lorries.
There is also Dedawan Dazey, a people smuggler who runs safe houses for migrants in Northern France before they are smuggled to the United Kingdom. Roman Ranyaye, an Iraqi people smuggler responsible for the smuggling of migrants from Asia to Europe, is also on the list.
Azad Khoshnaw, Nuzad Khoshnaw and Nihad Mohsin Xoshnaw are named for equipping gangs in northern France with outboard motors, inflatable boats and other maritime equipment for use in people smuggling to the UK.
Kazawi Gang, a people smuggling network that controls illegal migration routes from north Africa into the EU and is known to deal out harsh punishments to migrants who are unable to pay, has been sanctioned.
So too has the Tetwani Gang, known as one of the Balkans' most violent people-smuggling gangs, members are reported to hold migrants for ransom and sexually abuse women unable to pay their fees.
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, said it was a 'landmark moment in the government's work to tackle organised immigration crime [and] reduce irregular migration to the UK'.
'From Europe to Asia we are taking the fight to the people smugglers who enable irregular migration, targeting them wherever they are in the world and making them pay for their actions.
'My message to the gangs who callously risk vulnerable lives for profit is this: we know who you are, and we will work with our partners around the world to hold you to account.'
• Trevor Phillips: Tackling the small boats crisis begins at home
The measures aim to target organised crime gangs wherever they are in the world and disrupt their flow of cash, including freezing bank accounts, property and other assets, to hinder their activities. It will be illegal for UK businesses and banks to deal with anyone named on the list.
The move follows legislation being introduced under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill to ramp up enforcement powers for police forces and partners to investigate and prosecute people smugglers.