The UK’s new sanctions on people smugglers will do little to crack down on small boat crossings, migration experts have said.
The Government’s new sanctions on those involved in smuggling – from gang leaders to boat companies, fake passport dealers and brokers – will come into force on Wednesday.
The arsenal of sanctions includes asset freezes, travel bans and restrictions on engaging with the UK banking system, in the latest bid to reduce crossings.
Small boat journeys have soared so far this year, with 2025 on track to set a new record for the number of annual arrivals.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the sanctions regime would allow the Government to “target the assets and operations of people-smugglers wherever they operate, cutting off their funding and dismantling their networks piece by piece.”
But experts said that smuggling networks are likely to be able to evade and adapt to the measures.
Dr Peter Walsh of the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory said there was little evidence that smuggling sanctions were effective in cracking down on networks and the measures were “unlikely to be a game changer” in small boat crossings.
The main obstacle is that gangs usually operate in countries outside of the UK’s jurisdiction.
“They might be restricted in the UK, but if someone can just go elsewhere, then that defeats the whole purpose of the sanctions,” Walsh said.
Police officers clash with people thought to be migrants in Gravelines, France, during an attempted small boat crossing in July (Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire)Many countries don’t have the legal framework to execute the sanctions, with many having no specific criminal offenses for smuggling related activity, Walsh said.
Until last year, Germany had no offence for smuggling to the UK despite being a key transit country for migrants.
“If you’re in a position to sanction them, then you might just be able to arrest them,” Walsh said.
“Targeting some specific individuals you know, could have a great impact on them, but not necessarily the industry as a whole.”
The Foreign Office said the new sanctions will operate in tandem with traditional law enforcement tools to target people “operating outside of UK jurisdiction”.
Smugglers use unconventional finance to evade detection
The sanctions are also unlikely to be able to hit the financing of the smuggling networks.
“You can ban people from opening bank accounts in the UK… but they’ll open a bank account elsewhere,” Walsh said.
“A lot of the financing for smuggling operates outside of the traditional banking system, using wireless transfers that are notoriously difficult to clamp down on.”
Many smugglers are believed to use Hawala networks, an informal system for organising money transfers, which Walsh said is preferred by migrants than carrying cash as it is seen as lower risk.
The sanctions may be effective against smugglers who operate within UK, but Walsh said “the assumption is that the large majority do not.”
Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, said that the sanctions “may help disrupt some of the criminal networks profiting from human misery” but that without more routes to allow people to seek refuge in the UK legally, “desperate people will continue to take dangerous journeys, criminal gangs will simply adapt”.
“Enforcement alone will not stop dangerous Channel crossings, especially while there are no safe alternatives in place,” he said.
People run across the beach in Gravelines, France, in a bid to board a small boat (Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire)In 2024, 99 per cent of those crossing the Channel sought asylum, meaning they requested refuge in the UK on the grounds of persecution or threat in their own country.
To claim asylum in the UK, a person must be physically in the UK. There is no visa to travel to the UK to make an asylum claim.
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Read MoreThe UK does have some routes for other kinds of refugee resettlement in the UK – separate from the asylum process. Most are nationality specific – for Afghans, Ukrainians and Hong Kongers – while some are run by the UN, but people cannot apply for these.
According to Oxford’s Migration Observatory, the current rules mean that people from the 67 countries without visa-free travel or who don’t already have a visa allowing them to come to the UK do not have a legal route to seek asylum in the UK.
Those who do not have access to a passport, either because they never had one or because it was lost or abandoned during the rush to flee their home, also cannot travel to the UK safely to seek asylum.
An FCDO Spokesperson said: “People-smuggling networks thrive on anonymity. Unmasking them will disrupt their activities and makes others less likely to do business with them.
“We’re not just talking about small-scale casual criminals – organised immigration crime reaps $10 billion a year worldwide. Our new powers will cover a range of targets, such as Hawala operators using the financial system for transactions and to process ill-gotten profits.”
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