UK launches sanctions regime targeting people-smuggling gangs

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain on Monday launched a new sanctions regime targeting people-smuggling gangs and their enablers in what the government said was the first move of its kind globally.

The United Kingdom will be able to freeze assets, impose travel bans and block access to the country's financial system for individuals and entities involved in enabling irregular migration, without relying on criminal or counterterrorism laws.

The regime was previously outlined by foreign minister David Lammy in January. The British government said it would complement new powers in the Border, Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill that has yet to be enacted.

The Labour government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer is under pressure to meet a pledge to stop the flow of tens of thousands of people into Britain from across the Channel in small boats.

"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," British foreign minister David Lammy said in a statement.

" 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."

The government said the measures would target those who supply small boats, fake documents and financial services used by smuggling networks.

Chris Philp, in charge of the security and immigration portfolio in parliament for the main opposition Conservatives, said in a statement that it would take more to stop the crossings.

"The truth is you don't stop the Channel crossings by freezing a few bank accounts in Baghdad or slapping a travel ban on a dinghy dealer in Damascus," he said. "Swathes of young men are arriving daily, in boats bought online, guided by traffickers who laugh at our laws and cash in on our weakness."

Starmer has recently agreed deals with France and Germany to help stop the arrival of small boats as he tries to stem the rise of the right-wing populist Reform UK party, led by Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage.

(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti; editing by Mark Heinrich)