European partners urged to develop sanctions to smash people smuggling gangs
Source: gov.uk (2025-02-14)

The Foreign Secretary will press partners to replicate Britain’s world-first plans for a sanctions aimed at organised immigration crime gangs.

- Foreign Secretary urges international action on one of the defining security threats of our time – irregular migration
- Partners pressed to replicate UK’s world-first plans for sanctions targeting people smugglers
- £8m additional funding will short-circuit people smugglers’ business model, delivering on the government’s Plan for Change and commitment to protect UK borders
European partners will be urged to join up with the UK’s pioneering efforts to smash the business model of people smugglers to help tackle irregular migration.

The Foreign Secretary David Lammy will press partners at the Munich Security Conference to replicate Britain’s world-first plans for a sanctions regime aimed squarely at organised immigration crime gangs and their networks.

On the first day of the conference (today), the Foreign Secretary met Vice President of the US J.D. Vance. They discussed the importance of the special relationship, the war in Ukraine, their shared commitment to NATO and AUKUS, and building on our strong trade which already delivers growth and jobs for millions.

The UK and Italy will co-host a migration roundtable on the second day of conference, gathering representatives from The Netherlands, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Germany and others to promote the use of innovative tools to tackle migrant smuggling and organised immigration crime.

The UK’s plans to freeze the assets of and slap travel bans on smugglers who facilitate the deadly trade in people will help to cripple people-smuggling crime rings and starve them of illicit finance fuelling their operations, delivering on the government’s commitment to secure borders.

The Government is targeting irregular migration through a ‘whole-of-route’ approach, tackling both smugglers and the drivers of migration – such as limited opportunities in would-be migrants’ region.

A new £8m funding package announced today will give more people in East Africa an alternative to making perilous journeys to the UK in small boats by boosting access to education alongside employment opportunities across the region.

This programme has already helped to deliver entrepreneurship training to over 650 would-be and returned migrants in Ethiopia and Kenya, enabling many of them to set up their own businesses in their home countries, rather than migrating further afield.

Foreign Secretary, David Lammy said:

Criminal gangs enabling irregular migration are a national security threat across Europe. We must deliver on our mandate to smash the gangs, secure this country’s borders and deliver the Plan for Change.

Only by working together with our neighbours will we take the wind out of their sails and degrade the appalling trade in people.

We must also target the root causes of migration, which is why we are boosting opportunities across Eastern Africa – making people less likely to travel to the UK in the first place.

This will further boost this government’s progress on irregular migration. Nearly 19,000 failed asylum seekers, foreign criminals and other immigration offenders have been returned since the election to countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and South America following a major escalation in immigration enforcement by the Home Office.

The government’s success in ramping up removals is a key part of our Plan for Change to deliver on working people’s priorities and finally restoring order to the asylum system. This new approach focusses on breaking the business model of smuggling gangs through tougher law enforcement powers than ever before, rapidly removing those who are here illegally and ending the false promise of jobs used by gangs to sell spaces on boats.

Following a drive from this government to have more deployable enforcement staff, a renewed crackdown on those attempting to undermine the UK’s borders last month saw the highest January in over half a decade for enforcement activity.

Throughout January alone, Immigration Enforcement teams descended on 828 premises, including nail bars, convenience stores, restaurants and car washes, marking a 48% rise compared to the previous January. Arrests also surged to 609, demonstrating a 73% increase from just 352 the previous year.

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