It’s hoped the new plans could finally make life more difficult for smuggling gangs.
Migrant smugglers could have their movements restricted before they are convicted (Image: Getty)
Migrant smugglers could be hit with travel bans and have their bank accounts frozen before they are convicted, under new plans.
The Home Office is introducing Interim Serious Crime Prevention Orders in another attempt to disrupt the vile organised crime gangs.
The National Crime Agency will be able to apply for the court orders to restrict travel, ban suspected smugglers from using mobile phones or laptops, introduce social media bans or ban them from meeting other members of their gangs.
Restrictions could also be imposed on their bank accounts, to prevent money “going under the radar”.
Police patrolling a beach in France (Image: Getty)
The Interim Serious Crime Prevention Orders – which the NCA can apply for before a suspect is convicted – can only be enforced in England and Wales.
Home Office sources insist many of the gangs have members in the UK, who help “facilitate crossings” and collect payments for spaces on dinghies.
The new orders could help the National Crime Agency to “squeeze” the smuggling gangs, insiders believe.
The new tactics will also be crucial in hindering gangs who prosecutors are struggling to gather enough evidence on to haul them before judges.
Travel restrictions, in particular, are seen as a significant new weapon to “smash the gangs”.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Dangerous criminal people-smugglers are profiting from undermining our border security and putting lives at risk. They cannot be allowed to get away with it.
“Stronger international collaboration has already led to important arrests and action against dangerous gangs over the last few months. We will give law enforcement stronger powers they need to pursue and stop more of these vile gang networks.
“Border security is one of the foundations of this government’s Plan for Change, including making people better off, delivering safer streets and strengthening our NHS, and we will do everything in our power to deliver for working people.”
Ms Cooper is prioritising hunting the smuggling gangs – particularly the Kurdish organised crime networks that control many of the crossing routes – to end the crisis.
The Home Secretary also believes greater cooperation with European nations will allow police to disrupt the smugglers’ supply chains and seize more boats and engines.
Sources have told the Daily Express that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s team is hoping MI5 spies will treat people smugglers like foreign spies and terrorists.
Yvette Cooper is under intense pressure to end the Channel migrant crisis (Image: Getty)
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This could see them bug smugglers’ phones and trace their movements.
The NCA has enjoyed numerous big successes in recent weeks.
In November, a “major supplier” of small boats to Channel migrant smugglers was arrested.
The Turkish national shipped the dinghies from Turkey and stored them in Germany, investigators believe.
And three suspected Afghan people smugglers who are alleged to have moved thousands of migrants illegally through Europe were arrested in the UK.
The trio are alleged to have been part of a gang that moved migrants from Afghanistan through Iran, Turkey and the Balkans into western Europe, mainly France and Belgium, with many then being crammed onto small boats to the UK.
Saifur Rahman Ahmedzai, also known as Raees Hamza, 23, was arrested in Hemel Hempstead on Monday; National Crime Agency officers arrested 20-year-old Zeeshan Banghis, aka Bangash Zeeshan, 20, in New Kent Road, London on December 18; and Ziarmal Khan, also known as Boxer Bhai, 24, was arrested on December 6 at Stansted Airport.
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