Yvette Cooper: I’ll lock up and deport more migrants
Yvette Cooper has pledged to detain more illegal migrants and carry out a record number of deportations.
The Home Secretary will expand immigration detention centres as part of a plan to remove more than 14,500 illegal migrants in the next six months. This is a higher rate than at any time since 2018, when Theresa May was prime minister.
Nearly 300 extra places are to be created at two controversial immigration removal centres where illegal migrants and foreign criminals are detained before being deported. Some 300 Home Office caseworkers have already been re-deployed since the election to track down, detain and return illegal migrants.
Up to 100 new specialist intelligence and investigations officers are also being recruited to the National Crime Agency (NCA) to work with European agencies in targeting people-smuggling gangs.
The moves, announced on Wednesday, will be seen as an attempt to counter criticism that the axing of the Rwanda deportation scheme has left the UK without a deterrent to combat small boat crossings.
Labour sources claimed that efforts to stem Channel crossings were already starting to have an impact with fewer migrants reaching British shores in small boats in the six weeks since the election than in the same period last year and in 2022.
A senior party source attributed that to successes in disrupting the people smuggling gangs’ supply lines for boats, aggressive tactics by French police on the beaches, and improved co-operation with European law enforcement agencies.
Ms Cooper said: “We are taking strong and clear steps to boost our border security and ensure the rules are respected and enforced. Our new Border Security Command is already gearing up, with new staff being urgently recruited and additional staff already stationed across Europe.
“They will work with European enforcement agencies to find every route into smashing the criminal smuggling gangs organising dangerous boat crossings which undermine our border security and put lives at risk.
“And by increasing enforcement capabilities and returns, we will establish a system that is better controlled and managed, in place of the chaos that has blighted the system for far too long.”
The extra 290 detention spaces would be created at the immigration removal centres at Campsfield in Kidlington, Oxon, and Haslar in Gosport, Hants, to “support the higher pace of removals,” said the Home Office. Officials are also studying options for further expansions of detention capacity, which currently stands at 2,300.
Both centres were re-opened by the Tories in the face of local opposition and claims detention was “immoral”. Left-wing Labour MPs including John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, and Diane Abbott, the former shadow home secretary, also signed a Commons motion opposing the “inhumane” detention of migrants at the centres.
‘Major increase in returns’
The Home Office said Ms Cooper was, however, determined to expand detention space to enable a “major increase in returns and enforcement of immigration and asylum rules”.
She aims to achieve the highest rate of removals over the next six months for five years, beating the two previous six-month highs of 13,410 in 2018 and 14,389 last year. The Home Office said there had already been nine flights returning migrants since Labour came to power, including the biggest-ever chartered removal flight of 200 illegal migrants.
New returns agreements have been signed with Vietnam, which has accounted for the biggest rise in Channel migrants, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Serbia and Georgia following the fast-track removal deal with Albania.
Ms Cooper has yet to announce the new head of the Home Office’s new Border Security Command, which will harness officers from the NCA, Border Force and MI5 to combat people-smuggling gangs.
The 100 new NCA officers announced on Wednesday are the first tranche of up to 1,000 to be recruited, with hundreds to be deployed across Europe to work with Europol and other agencies trying to break up the gangs at source. It is being funded by some £75 million saved from scrapping the Rwanda scheme in its first year.
According to Labour, the number of migrants crossing the Channel since the election, 5,720, is 14 per cent lower than the same period last year (6,524) and more than 47 per cent lower than the same period in 2022 (8,444).
The Home Office pledged to intensify a crackdown on companies employing illegal migrants with fines of up to £60,000 per worker, criminal prosecutions with maximum penalties of five-year jail sentences and business closure orders.
However, James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, said: “While more NCA resource and detention capacity is welcome, this is not nearly ambitious enough.
“Paired with their moves to cancel our deterrent, give an effective amnesty to thousands of illegal migrants, and failure to hire a head of their phantom border command, it doesn’t scratch the surface. It is time Labour offered a credible solution that will cut immigration and stop the boats.”