LONDON (AFP) – The United Kingdom (UK) plans to target people smugglers with economic sanctions as it tries to stem the arrival of migrants on small boats crossing the Channel, the government announced late Wednesday.
It said the curbs would be the world’s first “standalone sanctions regime” aimed at people smugglers, allowing the UK “to target individuals and entities enabling dangerous journeys”.
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 that are ill suited to open seas – began on a large scale in 2018.
A major issue at last July’s general election which brought Labour to power, illegal immigration helped Brexit figurehead Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK party make huge gains.
Since taking office Starmer has scrapped his Conservative predecessors’ plans to send some migrants to Rwanda, and instead vowed to “smash the gangs” facilitating the journeys.
The new sanctions regime – expected to come into force within the year after legislation is passed in Parliament – will target “organised immigration networks”, according to the Foreign Ministry.
Sanctions experts from across government will work with law enforcement and Interior Ministry colleagues to curb “finance flows at their source” to deter smugglers, it said, without providing further details.
“We must dismantle the crime gangs facilitating breaches of our borders,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in comments released ahead of Lammy’s speech.
He added that by “crippling illicit finance rings allowing smugglers to traffic vulnerable people across Europe” his government would secure Britain’s borders.
“That means being bold and innovative in our policy making to ensure we are leaving no stone unturned,” Starmer said, insisting that his government “will do everything in our power to save lives and protect our borders”.
