Keir Starmer announces new UK sanctions regime to target people-smugglers

Companies and individuals with ties to people-smugglers could be barred from Britain and have their assets frozen under a new regime of UK sanctions.

Migrants are brought ashore after being picked up in the English Channel by a Border Force vessel. Picture: Getty Images

Individuals and companies with links to people-smugglers could be barred from Britain and have their assets frozen as part of the government’s latest measures to tackle small boat crossings.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced that a new sanctions regime targeting the people-smuggling trade will be introduced later this year.

It will mirror existing sanctions regimes that target oligarchs linked to President Vladimir Putin of Russia, suspected terrorists, extremists and cybercriminals.

Sir Keir said the curbs would be the world’s first “standalone sanctions regime” aimed at people-smugglers, allowing Britain “to target individuals and entities enabling dangerous journeys”.

The government will pass legislation by the end of this year to create the new powers, which will enable Britain to impose sanctions on individuals, companies and organisations where there are “reasonable grounds to suspect” involvement in people-smuggling.

The move, to be formally unveiled in a speech by Foreign Secretary David Lammy, comes as the government faces growing pressure to reduce the highly contentious and perilous boat arrivals from France.

Last year saw 36,816 people detected crossing the world’s busiest shipping lane to southeast Eng­land, a 25 per cent increase on 2023 and the second-highest annual total ever recorded.

The journeys – often in overloaded, poorly maintained inflatable vessels ill-suited to open seas – began on a large scale in 2018.

A major issue at last July’s general election that brought Labour to power, illegal immigration helped Brexit figurehead Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK party make huge gains.

Since taking office Mr Starmer has scrapped his Conservative predecessors’ plans to send some migrants to Rwanda, instead vowing to “smash the gangs” facilitating the journeys.

Sanctions experts from across government will work with law enforcement and interior ministry colleagues to curb “finance flows at their source” to deter smugglers, the government said.

Existing sanctions regimes result in British asset freezes and travel bans. “We must dismantle the crime gangs facilitating breaches of our borders,” Mr Starmer said. By “crippling illicit fin­ance rings allowing smugglers to traffic vulnerable people across Europe”, his government would secure Britain’s borders, he added.

The Times, AFP