The UK sanctioned Balkan-based gangs and financiers who it said facilitated small boat crossings across the English Channel.
The UK Foreign Office said the sanctions, which include asset freezes and travel bans, target criminal gangs involved in “illegal migration to the UK”.
The sanctions came as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted European leaders at a Western Balkans summit to discuss migration and the economy.
Starmer is under pressure to tackle irregular migration
Starmer has repeatedly promised to “destroy the gangs” that smuggle people across the English Channel.
More than 35,000 people have crossed the Channel this year. By the end of the year, this figure could surpass the record of approximately 45,774 known crossings in 2022.
Data collection on Channel crossings began in 2018. There are many other people who come to the UK on a visa and then claim asylum.
But Channel crossing figures have risen steadily over the past few years and the situation is now seen as a symbol of wider concern that the asylum system is not working.
Crossing the Channel on small boats is a dangerous journey that has taken many lives, with many dying while attempting to cross the Channel.
Starmer is also under pressure to stop the rise of Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-immigration reform UK party.
What did Starmer say about punishing criminal gangs?
“There is a criminal route for illegal migrants to come to Britain through the Western Balkans, and we are determined to close it down by working with European partners,” Starmer told the summit.
Starmer’s centre-left government imposed sanctions on members of what it described as a Kosovo-based “organized crime group that is responsible for preparing false documents and supplying them to criminal gangs”.
It also sanctioned a man it said was the leader of a Croatian gang supplying false Croatian passports to Balkan gangs.
Edited by: Roshni Majumdar