Images showed dozens of migrants being picked up at sea by Border Force and arriving in Dover aboard a patrol vessel
Measures will be drawn up by ‘sanctions experts from across government’ alongside the police, officials said.
Existing sanctions – for example, those imposed on Russian politicians and oligarchs – carry a maximum seven years’ imprisonment or a fine of up to £1million for anyone found dealing with them.
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Labour’s new measures, which are expected to be in force by the end of the year, will be able to freeze assets only here in the UK.
A new regime of sanctions will allow ministers to freeze the bank accounts, property and other assets of trafficking gangsters, including those responsible for sending tens of thousands of small-boat migrants across the Channel.
Mr Lammy said: ‘I’m proud to announce that the UK is set to be the first country in the world to develop legislation for a new sanctions regime specifically targeting irregular migration and organised immigration crime. This will help to prevent, combat, deter and disrupt irregular migration and the smuggling of migrants into the UK.’
Separately, new asylum and border security laws are due to be unveiled by Labour later this year.
The measures will be brought in through secondary legislation rather than an Act of Parliament.
The first migrants of 2025 have been intercepted by officials trying to cross the Channel
Keir Starmer today vows to ‘hit people smugglers where it hurts’ with tough new financial sanctions.
Both Khan, 55, of Feltham (left) and Rashied, 58, from Southall (right) were sentenced to a combined total of 10 years and 6 months in prison for conspiring to facilitate illegal entry into the UK
Read MoreEXCLUSIVE KEIR STARMER: Labour will put people smugglers out of business by hitting them where it hurts
Tory foreign affairs spokesman Dame Priti Patel said: ‘Labour has no credibility on dealing with the evil trade in people smuggling.
Traffickers will be publicly named for the first time so that financial institutions and other companies know it is illegal to deal with them.
Describing the measures as a ‘world first’, Sir Keir says: ‘My pledge to Mail readers is this – we’re going to hit them where it hurts. Today we are announcing a new sanctions regime, the first of its kind anywhere in the world.