London: The United Kingdom announced on Wednesday the imposition of sanctions on a large group of individuals and companies operating within a criminal network involved in smuggling illegal migrants, forging official documents, and laundering money from the Balkans region.
According to Kuwait News Agency, the British Foreign Office stated that cooperation with regional governments, particularly Albania and Kosovo, had enabled the exposure of criminal groups responsible for transporting illegal migrants to the United Kingdom via fishing boats departing from France.
The statement explained that the sanctions targeted, for example, a network in Kosovo known as Krasniqi, which runs sophisticated document forgery operations, and another led by a man named Nusret Seferovic, which forges Croatian passports for multiple criminal networks across the Balkans.
Additionally, a financial company known as Alba Trading FZCO was subjected to asset freezes for its role in money laundering on behalf of criminal networks. Other companies were also targeted for purchasing equipment to facilitate illegal migration, including boat engines used to transport migrants.
In a related context, the statement confirmed that the British government’s joint efforts with partners in the Western Balkans have significantly disrupted illegal migration flows in the region, with the number of migrants using this route dropping from 140,000 in 2022 to fewer than 21,000 last year.
The British government announced last month the allocation of GBP 10 million (approximately USD 13.3 million) to help combat human trafficking gangs and the criminal networks cooperating with them in the Balkans.