French minister says migrants ‘attracted’ to UK job market as 27 people die in Channel crossing

Published

4 years ago

November 25, 2021

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The French interior minister said migrants are “often attracted” to the UK’s job market after 27 people died while attempting to cross the Channel.

Gerard Darmanin said that Britain, Belgium and Germany could do more to help France tackle illegal migrants and human trafficking issues.

In an interview with French radio station RTL he also said the sinking of a migrant boat was an “absolute tragedy”.

Pregnant woman among the dead amid fears smugglers will continue trafficking in the coming weeks – live updates

Mr Darmanin did not have further information about the circumstances of the boat’s capsizing, or the victims’ nationalities, but said the two survivors were Somali and Iraqi and had been treated for severe hypothermia.

He also said a fifth suspected people trafficker was arrested overnight and the boat used to cross the Channel was purchased in Germany and had a German vehicle registration.

“Those responsible for the tragedy which took place yesterday in the Channel are the smugglers, who for a few thousand euros promise Eldorado in England. The smugglers are criminals, this tragedy reminds us, painfully,” he said.

Five women and a girl were among the victims after their boat capsized in the water. One of the dead women was later reported to have been pregnant.

Two people were rescued and four people-smugglers have been arrested, Mr Darmanin has said.

The boat the which sank was very flimsy, likening it to “a pool you blow up in your garden”, he added.

Franck Dhersin, the vice president of transport for the northern Hauts-de-France region, told French TV station BFMTV that heads of human trafficking networks who live comfortable lives in the UK must be arrested.

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“In France what do we do? We arrest the smugglers…To fight them, there’s only one way – we need to stop the organisations, you need to arrest the mafia chiefs,” he said.

“And the mafia chiefs live in London… They live in London peacefully, in beautiful villas, they earn hundreds of millions of euros every year, and they reinvest that money in the City.

“And so it’s very easy for the tax authorities to find them”.

Politics

Brazil weighs tax on international crypto transfers as it aligns rules with CARF

Published

2 hours ago

November 18, 2025

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Brazil weighs tax on international crypto transfers as it aligns rules with CARF

Brazil is reportedly weighing a tax on the use of cryptocurrencies for international payments as it moves to adopt a global crypto tax reporting data exchange framework.

A Tuesday Reuters report, citing “officials with direct knowledge of the discussions,” claims that the Brazilian government aims to tax cryptocurrency use for international payments.

During the confidential talks, representatives of the country’s finance ministry reportedly expressed interest in expanding the Imposto sobre Operações Financeiras (IOF) tax to include some digital asset-based cross-border transactions.

Brazil’s Federal Revenue Service also announced yesterday that its reporting rules for crypto-asset transactions will be aligned with the global Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), in a legal act dated Nov. 14.

This would provide the tax department with access to citizens’ foreign crypto account data through the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s global reporting and data-sharing standard. The move comes as no surprise, with Brazil having signed a statement in favor of CARF in late 2023.

The move follows Monday reports that the White House is reviewing the Internal Revenue Service’s proposal to join CARF and a similar move by the Council of the European Union, the collective body of EU27 finance ministers. In late September, the United Arab Emirates also signed an agreement to join the data-sharing program.

Brazil moves to close a crypto loophole

Cryptocurrencies are currently exempt from the IOF tax; however, crypto capital gains are subject to a 17.5% flat tax. IOF is a federal tax charged on financial transactions — mainly foreign exchange, credit, insurance and securities operations.

The two sources cited by Reuters said the move aims to close a loophole while also boosting public revenue. The current exclusion of digital assets from IOF is viewed as a loophole, as those assets — especially stablecoins — can be used as a de facto foreign-exchange or payment rail while skirting the taxes imposed on traditional means to do so.

The officials said the rules aim to “ensure that the use of stablecoins does not create regulatory arbitrage vis-a-vis the traditional foreign-exchange market.”

Brazil clamps down on crypto loopholes

The move is in line with the Brazilian central bank’s introduction this month of new rules treating some stablecoin and crypto wallet operations as foreign exchange operations. The new rules extend existing rules on consumer protection, transparency and Anti-Money Laundering to crypto brokers, custodians and intermediaries.

In April, Brazilian judges were authorized to seize cryptocurrency assets from debtors, closing another loophole. “Although they are not legal tender, crypto assets can be used as a form of payment and as a store of value,” a translated version of the Superior Court of Justice’s memo read.

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