Name: Gang leaders and corrupt officials could be named in smuggling sanctions | BBC News
Uploaded: 2025-07-22T17:05:00.000Z
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Now gang leaders, corrupt police officers and companies selling small boat equipment could be targeted with sanctions to disrupt people smuggling across the English Channel into the UK.

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The first sanctions are part of this new regime and due to come into force tomorrow.

Here's our diplomatic correspondent Caroline Hawley.

The last government pledged to stop the boats.

But the boats keep coming and the government's looking for new ways to crack down on the business of people smuggling.

Tomorrow the first sanctions will be imposed under new powers, going after those responsible for bringing people on dangerous, illegal journeys to the UK.

The initial wave is expected to include a couple of dozen names.

More than 20,000 migrants have crossed the Channel since the start of this year, a big increase on the same period 12 months ago, though numbers in 2024 were down from two years earlier.

Among the targets of the first new sanctions will be people supplying the small boats, selling fake passports and facilitating payments, as well as gang leaders.

They'll have any assets here frozen, be banned from travelling to the UK and it'll be illegal for British businesses to deal with them.

But questions have been asked about how easy sanctions will be to enforce and what impact they'll have and they won't be a quick fix.

I would say to the government that enforcement has a role to play, sanctions like those being announced today have a role to play, but there are no magic bullets and actually there is no simple solution.

This is a complex issue and the government needs to recognise that.

It needs to look at what can be done to support people who are fleeing wars to stay in neighbouring countries.

The government says criminal gangs are preying on the hopes of the vulnerable.

It wants to name and shame those making themselves rich in what is a multi-billion pound global trade that shows no sign of stopping.