Gang leaders among first to be hit by small boat sanctions

Gang leaders and small boat suppliers are among the first 25 targets to have their UK assets frozen in an effort to combat migrants crossing the Channel.

The suspected criminals are also banned from travelling to the UK, after they were the first to be hit by a wave of new sanctions targeting people-smuggling.

The list includes Albanian Bledar Lala, linked to smuggling migrants from Belgium, and Alen Basil, a former police translator now said to be running a people-trafficking network from Serbia.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy described the move as a “landmark moment” but experts said the impact was likely to be limited given the scale of smuggling networks.

UK investigators can now seize the British assets of sanctioned individuals and groups, while firms in Britain must cut any financial ties with them.

Among the targets is a Chinese company, Weihai Yamar Outdoors Product Co, accused of manufacturing inflatable boats being advertised for people-smuggling.

Also on the list are people accused of sourcing fake passports, middlemen facilitating illicit payments and gang members involved in people-smuggling via lorries and small boats.

The BBC has confirmed one of the men on the list was interviewed as part of the Smuggler’s Trail podcast. As part of securing the interview the BBC promised to protect his identity.

The man called Britain’s immigration system a “big joke” and claimed to have smuggled himself in and out of the UK repeatedly.

He told the BBC’s Sue Mitchell and Rob Lawrie he could make up to £100,000 in a single night through putting people on small boats to the UK from near Calais.

The smuggler, who has worked in people-trafficking for several years, said his capture would not stop anything as others would take his place.

He confirmed that a child on one of the boats he had organised had drowned recently, but claimed he “did not want to” put them on the boat.

Despite this, he refused to provide life jackets for those using boats he had organised, saying it “doesn’t matter” to him.

The BBC understands the smuggler was arrested recently but managed to evade detention before his identity could be confirmed.

In a statement, Lammy said: “From Europe to Asia we are taking the fight to the people-smugglers who enable irregular migration, targeting them wherever they are in the world and making them pay for their actions.

“My message to the gangs who callously risk vulnerable lives for profit is this: we know who you are, and we will work with our partners around the world to hold you to account.”

But Oxford University’s Migration Observatory said the impact could be limited.

Its director Dr Madeleine Sumption said she would be “surprised” if the sanctions were the “game changer” to end small boat crossings.

“There are so many people involved in the industry that targeting people individually is probably only going to have an impact around the margins,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday.

She added: “The impact is dependent to an extent on the co-operation of other countries where smugglers are operating.”

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said “freezing a few bank accounts in Baghdad or slapping a travel ban on a dinghy dealer in Damascus” would not stop small boat crossings.

“The gangs aren’t scared – because Labour won’t detain, deport or even pretend to enforce the border,” Philp said.

“We must deport illegal immigrants immediately on arrival, it is the only way to end the pull factor and deter crossings.”

Challenged over whether the sanctions would have an impact, Migration Minister Seema Malhotra told the BBC that freezing assets would leave groups unable to interact with the UK economy and “disrupt” their operations.

Since coming to power in July last year, Labour has announced a series of measures to tackle people-smuggling, including a new criminal offence of endangering the lives of others at sea.

Legislation going through Parliament sets out plans to use counter-terror powers against people-smugglers – with suspects facing travel bans, social-media blackouts and phone restrictions.

But the latest figures show 2025 has already set a new record for small boat arrivals.

More than 21,000 people have made the dangerous crossing so far this year – a 56% increase on the same period in 2024.