British authorities have imposed sanctions on over a dozen people and organizations suspected of smuggling migrants into Britain, cutting them off from the country’s financial system and barring them from entering. This was the first use of a new legal authority aimed at disrupting the human-trafficking networks run by gangs and organized crime syndicates that transport desperate migrants into the country. The migrants’ journeys often conclude with the dangerous crossing of the English Channel in small, rickety boats.
The British Foreign Office said the 25 people and criminal organizations targeted on Wednesday had been supplying the small boats, producing fake passports, and specializing in moving money outside traditional financial networks to facilitate the illegal movement of people. Among them were a person who the government said ran safe houses along the smuggling routes and seven people reported to be involved with the Kavac Gang, a Balkan-based group that it said created fake passports. Refugee advocates and experts on migration applauded the government’s actions but said that the effort addressed only a small part of the problem and was unlikely to substantially stem the flow of people seeking shelter around the world.
The British Foreign Office has called the crackdown part of his country’s moral duty to stop the crossings. Small boats account for only about 5% of overall immigration into Britain, but the images of migrants jumping off the boats onto the beaches have become a potent political issue. Conservative politicians and their supporters have seized on the growing presence of migrants to attack the prime minister.
Advocates for migrants welcomed the new efforts, in part because they targeted traffickers and not migrants themselves. However, they also cautioned that the relatively modest sanctions would probably do little to dissuade people desperate to leave their homes.
British officials said the new sanctions were part of a broader effort to return more migrants to their home countries if they did not qualify for asylum or refugee status. Since Mr. Starmer’s election last summer, the British government has returned 35,000 migrants, an increase of 13% over the previous year.
