US slaps sanctions on Syrian for human smuggling

Washington   :  The US Treasury announced on Wednesday it has imposed sanctions on one Syrian person and his organisation for smuggling people to the US border.

The Treasury designated Nasif Barakat and the Barakat Transnational Criminal Organization, accusing the group, which was based in Homs of Syria, of facilitating the smuggling of Syrian and Lebanese nationals to the US border using a variety of travel routes, according to a statement. 

The designation was "an important step toward disrupting Barakat's prolific human smuggling operations in Syria and around the world," Xinhua quoted Sigal Mandelker, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, as saying.

The sanctions would freeze any assets that a blacklisted person or entity holds under US jurisdiction and ban any US individuals or companies from making business deals with them.