The UK is to develop a new sanctions regime to cripple people smuggling crime rings and starve them of the illicit finance that fuels their operations.
It is expected that the new regime will boost the UK’s ability to prevent, combat, deter and disrupt irregular migration and hold the perpetrators accountable.
As the world’s first standalone sanctions regime dedicated to targeting irregular migration and organised immigration crime, it will allow the UK to target individuals and entities enabling dangerous journeys. As part of the Plan for Change, the government is committed to reducing small boat crossings and net migration.
The regime, which is expected to come into force within the year, will target organised immigration networks. The information from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that criminal networks are making huge profits exploiting vulnerable people by facilitating irregular migratory movements, including dangerous sea crossings across Europe.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “We must dismantle the crime gangs facilitating breaches of our borders. By crippling illicit finance rings allowing smugglers to traffic vulnerable people across Europe, we will deliver on our Plan for Change and secure UK borders. My government will do everything in our power to save lives and protect our borders for years to come.” Many smugglers operate in an informal cash-based network, making it hard for the authorities to target their assets. Instead the UK government intends to disrupt the supply chains that support the smugglers making it uneconomic to continue doing so.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “People smuggling poses significant challenges to global security and the UK, and alongside partners across Europe, we are working hand in glove to develop novel and bold solutions to tackle irregular upstream migration.”
While the regime will be an autonomous scheme, the Foreign Office expects to collaborate closely with international allies to combat people smugglers.
Ashton Cull, RHA (Road Haulage Association) Senior Public Affairs Lead, said: “We support the government’s efforts to dismantle people-smuggling gangs and their trade in human misery, and we’re hopeful that the measures they’ve announced will be a sufficiently disruptive deterrent. Commercial vehicle operators get unwittingly caught up in this trade with criminal gangs using ever-resourceful ways of securing ‘clandestine entrants’ into UK-bound vehicles undetected. The same gangs who are loading people onto boats for perilous sea crossings without any regard for their safety are doing the same thing when helping them break into vehicles. This also puts drivers at risk and also leaves them and their employers liable to receiving huge fines if people are discovered on board.”
Photo: UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer.
Photo courtesy of Creative Commons
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