UK brings forward world’s first sanctions regime to smash the gangs responsible for irregular migration

• Anyone complicit in facilitating people smuggling to the UK could be sanctioned from tomorrow.   
• Targets will have assets frozen, be shut off from the UK financial system and banned from travelling to the UK, under new regime targeting supply of money and material enabling irregular migration. 
• New sanctions are the latest tool in UK's arsenal to secure Britain's borders, reduce irregular migration and deliver on the Plan for Change.

Anyone complicit in facilitating people smuggling to the UK will be at risk of having their assets frozen and being banned from travelling to Britain, under new powers announced by the Foreign Secretary today. 

Tomorrow, the FCDO will impose the first wave of sanctions on gangs involved in people smuggling and driving irregular migration to the UK, as well as their enablers, such as financiers and companies involved in the sale of small boat equipment.   

The plans are a key example of the FCDO using innovative foreign policy approaches to deliver on the Plan for Change for the British people. The regime will be the world's first dedicated to targeting people smuggling and organised immigration crime, with the exploitation of vulnerable people by criminals and their associated networks being one of the key drivers of irregular migration to the UK. Migrants who pay people-smugglers are also at a high risk of working in modern slavery conditions in the informal economy, being returned to their home country, or losing their lives at sea.   

Sanctions can disrupt the flow of money and materials - including freezing property, bank accounts and other assets - which allow organised criminal gangs to facilitate irregular migration to the UK. Sanctions are designed to reach individuals located anywhere in the world, who will be publicly named so that it is illegal for the UK financial system to engage with them.     

As part of the government's Plan for Change and mission-led approach, the FCDO has been breaking down siloes by working closely with investigators at the National Crime Agency, Border Security Command, and other key partners to identify the most impactful targets, with the first sanctions planned for tomorrow.  

The first targets will cover a range of wrongdoing, from the supply of small boats being used on cross-Channel journeys, to the trade in fake passports, as well as middlemen facilitating payments through Hawala networks, to the gang leaders themselves.  

The regime will complement new powers for law enforcement being introduced in the Border, Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, ensuring we have the widest toolkit available to smash the gangs.  Sanctions can be used to target organised immigration crime gangs and their enablers, wherever they are, including where traditional law enforcement and criminal justice approaches cannot reach. People smuggling and human trafficking are a challenge to global security, and the Government is working to strengthen our relationships with key partners, including the EU, to better secure the UK's borders.  

 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. 

It is our moral duty and a key part of our Plan for Change to do all we can to smash these gangs and secure Britain's borders. 

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.

Today's announcement reflects how the whole of government is working together on the single mission of securing Britain's borders. The new regime complements work by the National Crime Agency and Border Security Command (BSC) to tackle organised immigration crime and tackle the causes of irregular migration to the UK in source and transit countries. The BSC has seen a budget boost of £280m per year by 2028 to fund new specialist investigators, new technology and cutting-edge surveillance equipment to disrupt and destroy criminal gangs.   

Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said:  

The new sanctions regime marks a decisive step in our fight against the criminal gangs who profit from human misery. It will allow us to target the assets and operations of people-smugglers wherever they operate, cutting off their funding and dismantling their networks piece by piece. 

Through the Border Security Command and key partners like the National Crime Agency, we are strengthening our ties with other nations to tackle this global problem. 

Together, we are sending a clear message that there is no hiding place for those who exploit vulnerable people and put lives at risk for profit.

Today's announcement is part of the FCDO's three-pronged ‘disrupt, deter, return' strategy to tackle irregular migration globally. In addition to disrupting organised immigration crime networks through sanctions, the FCDO works with source and transit countries to deter would-be migrants from making a dangerous journey in the first place, and works with the Home Office to negotiate the return of people who have no right to be here to their countries of origin, including criminals and failed asylum seekers. Since the election, over 35,000 people have been returned, up 13% on the same period in the year before.   

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Notes to editors             

Using the powers conferred by the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act (the Sanctions Act) the Government has laid secondary legislation before Parliament that introduces a new Global Irregular Migration and Trafficking in Persons sanctions regime. The Regulations will be debated by both Houses of Parliament when they return from the summer recess in line with the made affirmative procedure.     

Asset freeze   

An asset freeze prevents any UK citizen, or any business in the UK, from dealing with any funds or economic resources which are owned, held or controlled by the designated person. UK financial sanctions apply to all persons within the territory and territorial sea of the UK and to all UK persons, wherever they are in the world. It also prevents funds or economic resources being provided to or for the benefit of the designated person.   

Travel ban   

A travel ban means that the designated person must be refused leave to enter or to remain in the United Kingdom, providing the individual is an excluded person under section 8B of the Immigration Act 1971.   

Director disqualifications   

Where director disqualification sanctions apply, it will be an offence for a person designated for the purpose of those sanctions to act as a director of a company or to take part in the management, formation or promotion of a UK company.