UK govt sanctions 25 targets involved in people-smuggling

The UK on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen people, groups and suppliers accused of helping to smuggle migrants across the Channel, in the first such use of sanctions powers.

The move comes as the UK government faces growing pressure to stem the migrant arrivals on small boats from northern France, as numbers hit record levels this year.

The asset freezes and travel bans announced on Wednesday target individuals and entities “driving irregular migration to the UK,” the Foreign Office said.

They include a small boat supplier in China, so-called “hawala” money movers in the Middle East, and gang leaders based in the Balkans and North Africa.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy called it “a landmark moment in the government’s work to tackle organized immigration crime” linked 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,” he added.

“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.”

In all, 20 individuals, four gangs and one company were sanctioned.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer took power a year ago promising to curb the journeys by “smashing the gangs” facilitating the crossings, but has struggled to deliver on the pledge.

The issue has become politically perilous in the UK, blamed for helping to fuel the rise of the far right.

Protests have erupted sporadically outside hotels believed to house asylum-seekers, with a recent demonstration outside one in Epping, east of London, turning violent.

Among those sanctioned on Wednesday was Bledar Lala, described as an Albanian controlling “the ‘Belgium operations’ of an organized criminal group” involved in the crossings.

Also included was Alen Basil, a former police translator who the UK says went on to lead a large smuggling network in Serbia, “terrorizing refugees, with the aid of corrupt policemen.”

Another alleged “gangland boss” sanctioned is Mohammed Tetwani, who London branded “the self-styled ‘King of Horgos’ over his brutal running of a migrant camp in Horgos, Serbia.

He led the Tetwani people-smuggling 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,” the Foreign Office said.

The sanctions package targets seven alleged people-smugglers linked to Iraq, and three people accused of using for irregular migration the ancestral “hawala” banking system, which allows cash transfers without money actually moving.

As well as hitting gangs and their leaders in North Africa and the Balkans, it also targets a Chinese company — Weihai Yamar Outdoor Product Co. — which has advertised its small boats online “explicitly for the purpose of people-smuggling.”