ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Ten Iraqi nationals, including individuals from the Kurdistan Region, were sanctioned under a new United Kingdom sanctions regime targeting smuggling networks, the British consulate in Erbil said on Wednesday.
The UK announced on Tuesday the launch of what it described as the world’s first sanctions regime specifically aimed at smuggling gangs and their facilitators.
“The first designations under the regime, announced today, include 10 Iraqi nationals who have been exploiting and endangering vulnerable people, including from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and threatening the security of the UK and the KRI [Kurdistan Region of Iraq],” the UK consulate general in Erbil said in a statement seen by Rudaw.
“These sanctions are part of a wider effort, in coordination with international partners, including the KRG [Kurdistan Regional Government], to stop this cruel trade and promote regional and international stability,” it added.
The new Global Irregular Migration and Trafficking in Persons (GIM) sanctions target individuals and organizations involved in smuggling and trafficking worldwide, including those who fund or enable such activities. Measures include travel bans, asset freezes, and restrictions on access to the UK’s financial system.
With these sanctions, the UK government does not have to rely on criminal or counter-terrorism laws. They require less evidence and do not involve the apprehension of the suspect. Criminal law also takes effect after a crime has been committed, while sanctions serve as a proactive tool to disrupt criminal activity and publicize the individuals involved.
“For too long, criminal gangs have been lining their corrupt pockets and preying on the hopes of vulnerable people with impunity as they drive irregular migration to the UK. We will not accept this status quo,” UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a statement on Tuesday.
“That’s why the UK has created the world’s first sanctions regime targeted at gangs involved in people smuggling and driving irregular migration, as well as their enablers,” he added.
The BBC reported the announcement following a protest outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in southeast England’s Essex county. The protest was triggered by the arrest of an asylum seeker for alleged sexual assault.
It also reported that around two dozen names of the first batch of targeted individuals will be announced. Per the UK consulate general’s statement, it is clear that ten of the individuals are Iraqi nationals, including from the Kurdistan Region.
AFP released the identities of some of them, including several with Kurdish names.
“The first targets will cover a range of wrongdoing, from the supply of small boats being used on cross-Channel journeys, to the trade in fake passports, as well as middlemen facilitating payments through Hawala networks, to the gang leaders themselves,“ the British government’s statement said.
Hawala networks are an informal and trust-based system for transferring money across borders without physical transfer of money.
Separately, the UK has signed a “one in, one out” agreement with France, allowing the return of illegal migrants arriving from France in exchange for accepting a set number of legal asylum seekers from France subject to security checks, according to the BBC.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer also recently reached agreements with France and Germany aimed at curbing the arrival of small boats.
Thousands of people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region take on perilous routes towards Europe on a yearly basis in hopes of escaping unemployment, political instability, and corruption.
The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has previously worked with the KRG against organized crime.
“We maintain a positive relationship with law enforcement partners in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and work with them against a range of shared threats, including organised immigration crime," a spokesperson for the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) press office told Rudaw in November 2024.
Kurdish criminal groups control the increasingly lucrative cross-Channel migration routes, according to the NCA, which said in its 2023 assessment that the groups are mainly based in northern Europe.
Also in November last year, a French court sentenced 18 people, mostly Kurds from the Kurdistan Region, to prison terms of up to 15 years for operating a smuggling network that transported people across the English Channel. In May 2024, Kurdish police in Sulaimani arrested a Kurdish man accused of heading an organized crime group that smuggled people into the UK.
The regime was previously outlined by foreign minister David Lammy in January.
