LONDON: The UK on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen people, groups and suppliers from China, the Middle East and Balkans accused of helping to smuggle migrants across the Channel, in what it called a “landmark” first use of new powers.
The move comes as Britain’s government faces growing domestic 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 target individuals and entities “driving irregular migration to the UK,” and include four “gangs” and “gangland bosses” operating in the Balkans, the Foreign Office said.
They also hit a small boat supplier in China, so-called “hawala” money movers in the Middle East, and seven alleged people-smugglers linked to Iraq.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy called it “a landmark moment in the government’s work to tackle organized immigration crime” impacting 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.”
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.
Nearly 24,000 migrants have made the perilous journey across the Channel so far in 2025, the highest ever tally at this point in a year.
The issue has become politically perilous in the UK, blamed for helping to fuel the rise of the far-right and violence at anti-migrant demonstrations.
Protests have erupted sporadically outside hotels believed to house asylum-seekers, with a recent demonstration outside one in Epping, east of London, descending into clashes that injured eight police officers.
The riots sparked by the Southport attacks in July 2024 also saw suspected asylum-seeker hotels attacked and anti-migrant sentiment on display.
Wednesday’s designations represent the UK’s first use of its new “Global Irregular Migration Sanctions Regime.”
It claims the regime is a “world first,” empowering the Foreign Office to target foreign financiers and companies as well as individuals allegedly involved in facilitating people-smuggling to the UK.
In all, it sanctioned 20 individuals, four gangs — two Balkan groups and two of North African origin operating in the Balkans — as well as the Chinese company.
Among those facing curbs was Bledar Lala, described as an Albanian controlling “the ‘Belgium operations’ of an organized criminal group” involved in the crossings.
The UK also targeted Alen Basil, a former police translator it accused of now leading a large smuggling network in Serbia, “terrorizing refugees, with the aid of corrupt policemen.”
miLondon hit alleged “gangland boss” Mohammed Tetwani with sanctions, noting he was dubbed the “King of Horgos” over his brutal running of a migrant camp in the Serbian town Horgos.
Tetwani leads the Tetwani people-smuggling gang, which the UK branded “one of the Balkans’ most violent” and accused of holding migrants for ransom and sexually abusing women unable to pay the fees demanded.
The sanctions package targets three people accused of using the ancestral “hawala” banking system, which allows cash transfers without money actually moving, for irregular migration.
The sanctioned company in China — Weihai Yamar Outdoor Product Co. — has advertised its small boats online “explicitly for the purpose of people-smuggling,” according to the Foreign Office.
Tom Keatinge, of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said the sanctions were “a new front in the UK’s efforts to control a business model that brings profit to the enablers” and misery to victims.
“However, I would caution against overpromising,” he told AFP. “Talk of freezing assets and using sanctions to ‘smash the gangs’ seems far-fetched and remains to be seen.
“History suggests that such assertions hold governments hostage to fortune.”
