People smugglers to have assets frozen and face UK ban under new sanctions
Companies that sell small boat equipment for Channel crossings will also face the raft of sanctions announced by the Foreign Secretary on Tuesday.
This ranges from those involved in supplying and financing small boats, fake passports, and 'middlemen' putting cash through the Hawala system, a legal money transfer system, which is also used in payments linked to Channel crossings.
The first wave of sanctions comes into force on Wednesday, and recipients will be publicly named, so it will be illegal for UK businesses and banks to deal with them.
More than 20 designations are expected to be in the firing line, and could include corrupt public officials and police officers in steps to tackle the multi-billion-dollar industry.
Over 23,500 migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats so far in 2025.
The fresh sanctions 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.
The latest measures to curb people-smuggling come as the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill continues through Parliament.
The bill, if passed, will introduce new criminal offences and hand counterterror-style powers to police and enforcement agencies to crack down on people smuggling gangs.
Details are also being ironed out on a so-called 'one in, one out' pilot scheme, announced by Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this month.
The scheme will see migrants arriving via small boat to the UK promptly sent back to France, in exchange for a different individual being allowed to come to the UK by a safe and legal route.
However, there is no 'fixed' target for the number of migrants who will be returned to France if they cross the Channel via small boat, the home secretary has said.
Discussing the new sanctions, 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.
'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.'
Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Recognising Palestine would reward Oct 7 murderers, Starmer told
Sir Keir Starmer will 'reward' the Oct 7 terrorists if he recognises a Palestinian state, Israel's ambassador to the UK has said. Tzipi Hotovely has described proposals for recognising a Palestine state as 'nothing less than a reward for terrorism'. The ambassador, writing for The Telegraph, said that 'Palestinian recognition would be a reward for hostage-taking, for rape, for murder, for burning innocent people alive'. Ms Hotovely added that recognition would also be a 'significant departure from the policy of the US administration ', risking a damaging rift with the White House. She said: 'Terrorists are watching intently and the signal that they are receiving is that their violent tactics yield positive results for them in the UK and the West.' Her intervention came as Jewish faith leaders in Britain told the Prime Minister that recognition 'cannot improve the situation' and would be 'gesture politics'. Jewish faith leaders at the Board of Deputies, Britain's largest Jewish community organisation, have also told Sir Keir not to recognise a Palestinian state. Phil Rosenberg, the board's president, said that Hamas 'will claim recognition of Palestine as a vindication of their murderous rampages and hostage-taking'. Mr Rosenberg, writing for The Telegraph, said 'unilateral recognition cannot be a substitute for the difficult negotiations and concessions needed to realise an enduring peace'. Sir Keir has come under increasing pressure from his own party to recognise a Palestinian state. This week, 131 Labour MPs penned a letter urging their leader to follow Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and announce a plan to recognise a state. Sir Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, and Anas Sarwar, the leader of Scottish Labour, have also told the Prime Minister to act immediately. The Labour-led foreign affairs committee also recommended immediate recognition this week, describing it as 'inalienable right'. Cabinet ministers have also reportedly urged the Prime Minister to act on the issue. The setting up of a new Left-wing party under Jeremy Corbyn, pledging to support 'a free and independent Palestine', is also likely to put electoral pressure on Sir Keir. On Saturday, the Prime Minister rejected calls from his party and Mr Macron to recognise a Palestinian state within the next few months. He said that while he was 'unequivocal' about recognising a Palestinian state as part of a peace process, this should come after a ceasefire and the return of Israeli hostages. Sir Keir said recognition 'must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis'. The issue is set to dominate Donald Trump's four-day visit to the UK, with Sir Keir due to meet the US president at the latter's Turnberry golf course in Scotland on Monday. He is attempting to finalise a UK-US trade deal with Mr Trump, the general terms of which were set out in May. There are fears within the Government that a disagreement with the president over Palestine recognition, which Mr Trump opposes, could derail the trade deal. Ms Hotovely described recognition as 'an act of grandstanding and virtue-signalling' and accused Mr Macron of 'Napoleonic cosplaying'. She claimed that after any recognition by Western powers, 'a Palestinian state would have all the ingredients of a would-be failed state'.
Powys County Times
an hour ago
- Powys County Times
UK working with Jordan to air drop aid into Gaza, PM tells Macron and Merz
The UK is working with Jordan on plans to air drop aid into Gaza and evacuate children needing medical assistance, Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed in a call with French and German counterparts. The Prime Minister held emergency talks with Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz on Saturday amid mounting global anger at the humanitarian conditions in the enclave. In a readout of the call, Number 10 said the leaders had agreed 'it would be vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently-needed ceasefire into lasting peace'. 'The Prime Minister set out how the UK will also be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to air drop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance,' a Downing Street spokesperson said. However, the head of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency warned airdrops were 'a distraction and screensmoke' that would fail to reverse deepening starvation in Gaza, and could in some cases harm civilians. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said on Saturday: 'A man-made hunger can only be addressed by political will. Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements and dignified access to people in need.' Israel said on Friday it will allow airdrops of aid by foreign countries into Gaza to alleviate starvation in the Palestinian territory, where there is widespread devastation. The readout made no mention of the issue of Palestinian statehood, which the Prime Minister has faced calls to immediately recognise after French President Mr Macron confirmed his country would do so in September. However, Downing Street said the leaders had committed to 'work closely together on a plan' to 'pave the way to a long-term solution and security in the region'. Once the proposals have been 'worked up', they will seek to advance them with other key partners, including in the region, the readout said. Some 221 MPs from Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, SNP, Greens, Plaid Cymru, SDLP and independents have signed a letter pressuring the Government to follow suit at a UN meeting next week. Donald Trump suggested Mr Macron's announcement, which saw him commit to formally recognising Palestinian sovereignty at the UN General Assembly in September, 'doesn't matter' as he left the US for a visit to Scotland. Sarah Champion, the senior Labour MP who organised the letter by parliamentarians, said recognition 'would send a powerful symbolic message that we support the rights of the Palestinian people'. Other senior Commons figures who signed the letter include Labour select committee chairs Liam Byrne, Dame Emily Thornberry and Ruth Cadbury. Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey, as well as Tory former minister Kit Malthouse, and Sir Edward Leigh – Parliament's longest-serving MP – also signed it. The majority of those who have signed, 131, are Labour MPs. The Government has so far said its immediate focus is on getting aid into the territory and insisted that recognising sovereignty must be done as part of a peace process. Charities operating in Gaza have said Israel's blockade and ongoing military offensive are pushing people there towards starvation, warning that they are seeing their own workers and Palestinians 'waste away'. But Mr Lazzarini said air drops can be dangerous as they can fall on top of civilians, and that being able to drive aid through is more effective and safer. 'Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians,' he said. 'It is a distraction and screensmoke.' The Prime Minister will meet the US president during his trip to Scotland, where he arrived on Friday evening. US-led peace talks in Qatar were cut short on Thursday, with Washington's special envoy Steve Witkoff accusing Hamas of a 'lack of desire to reach a ceasefire'. The deal under discussion is expected to include a 60-day ceasefire in which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and the remains of 18 others in phases in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
The Macrons v Candace Owens: lawsuit marks new phase in battle against conspiracy theories
When the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and his wife, Brigitte, took the rare step this week of filing a US defamation lawsuit against the rightwing podcaster Candace Owens, it marked a new phase in a legal battle on both sides of the Atlantic against the false claim that Brigitte Macron is a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux. The Macrons' US lawsuit attacked what it called the 'verifiably false and devastating lies' being repeated online by Owens that Brigitte Macron, 72, was born a man. The lawsuit said evidence clearly disproved this 'grotesque narrative', which had become 'a campaign of global humiliation' and 'relentless bullying on a worldwide scale'. The case prompted broader questions this week about how conspiracy theories spread worldwide, whether they can be stopped in the courts and what this false narrative, which began in France after the Covid pandemic, says about French society's distrust in politicians. 'This is now one of the biggest fake news stories worldwide in terms of popularity – a billion people have seen it,' said Emmanuelle Anizon, a senior journalist for the French weekly Nouvel Obs, who last year published a book, L'Affaire Madame, investigating the origins of the rumour in France. 'What's new is that for the first time, Emmanuel Macron has joined his wife in taking legal action.' The Macrons' US lawsuit states the accusation that Brigitte Macron was born a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux is completely false and Trogneux is in fact is her older brother. Trogneux, 80, lives in the northern French town of Amiens, where he grew up with Brigitte and four other siblings in a family famous for its local chocolate business. He was present in public alongside his Brigitte at Emmanuel Macron's two presidential inaugurations in 2017 and 2022. Owens, whose podcast and social media channels have an audience of millions, said this week she stood by her narrative. The false claim that Brigitte was a man first went viral in France in 2021, at a moment when distrust of politicians in was at a high, after the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) anti-government protest movement and the Covid pandemic that killed more than 130,000 people in France. In December 2021, a woman who used the name Amandine Roy and called herself a 'spiritual medium', broadcast a four-hour YouTube interview with Natacha Rey, 51, who had worked previously for a small essential oils business and described herself as 'an independent investigative journalist, self-taught, and not from the inner circle of mainstream media'. Rey said she had spent three years investigating Brigitte Macron, after questioning the first lady's body-shape in photos. Rey said she believed Brigitte Macron was actually a man called Jean-Michel Trogneux. Within hours, the interview had 500,000 views and the hashtag #Jean-MichelTrogneux was trending on social media in France, promoted by, among others, some far-right and anti-vaccine accounts. A small far-right newsletter had already published Rey's theories but it was the video interview that sent the claim viral. 'There was a deeper societal problem at that time in France: the mistrust of political, media and economic institutions,' Anizon said. 'There had been years of political health scandals worldwide and in France – from a contaminated blood scandal to the Mediator weight-loss drug. Many people had gradually reached a point of distrust, switching off traditional mainstream media and turning instead to online accounts – Covid and vaccine mistrust increased that.' The rumour spread in part because the Macrons' relationship had long been a topic of comment online. Brigitte Macron, who is 24 years older, first met Emmanuel Macron when she was a French teacher at his Jesuit secondary school in Amiens, directing him in a school play. The Macrons' US lawsuit this week stated: 'Through the school's theatre programme, president Macron and Mrs Macron formed a deeper intellectual connection.' It added: 'At all times the teacher-student relationship between Mrs Macron and President Macron remained within the bounds of the law.' Brigitte Macron, who has three children from her first marriage, divorced in 2006 and she and Emmanuel Macron married the following year when he was 30. In early 2022, after the first viral video allegations, Brigitte Macron and her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux, filed a defamation case in France against Roy and Rey, who both denied wrongdoing. In September 2024, a Paris court found the two women guilty and ordered them to pay €8,000 in damages to Brigitte Macron and €5,000 in damages to Jean-Michel Trogneux. The women appealed against the verdict and, this month, they were acquitted by a Paris appeals court. The appeal court verdict did not imply that the claims that Brigitte Macron was a man were true, but instead judges ruled that the case against the women did not fit the definition of defamation. Brigitte Macron and Jean-Michel Trogneux have taken the case to France's highest appeals court, the cour de cassation. Brigitte Macron has filed a separate case for online harassment and 10 people will go on trial in Paris in October. Each time the Macrons' relationship is in the spotlight, the false allegations about gender spread again online. This was the case in May, when video images appeared to show Brigitte pushing her husband away with both hands on his face before they disembarked from a plane on a tour of Southeast Asia. Macron dismissed the incident as play-fighting, telling reporters that 'we are squabbling and, rather, joking with my wife', and that it had been overblown into 'a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe'. Brigitte Macron has not spoken publicly on the false gender claims since 2022 when she told French radio, RTL, that allegations that 'I am my brother' were an 'impossible' attack on her parents' family tree. She told TF1 TV at the time she wanted to set an example so other people would not suffer in the same way. She said fighting online bullying 'is my battle'.
