The UK government, under Prime Minister Keir Starmer, has announced plans to ramp up deportations, aiming to remove more than 14,000 individuals who lack the legal right to remain in the country. This initiative is part of a broader effort to address public concerns about rising immigration, which played a significant role in the recent general election won by Labour.
The Home Office revealed on Wednesday that it will recruit up to 100 intelligence officers at the National Crime Agency to combat organized crime groups facilitating small boat crossings by asylum seekers across the English Channel. Additionally, the government plans to increase migrant detention capacity and intensify efforts to penalize firms that hire illegal workers. These measures are central to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s strategy to raise the deportation rate, including the removal of failed asylum seekers, to its highest level since 2018 over the next six months.
Cooper emphasized the importance of creating a more controlled and manageable immigration system, contrasting it with the chaos that has plagued the system in recent years. The new Labour government is determined to demonstrate quick progress in addressing immigration, particularly after far-right, anti-immigration riots erupted across the country earlier this month, fueled by misinformation.
Immigration has remained a hotly debated issue since Labour’s landslide victory in July’s general election. During the campaign, Starmer promised to tackle the criminal gangs organizing Channel crossings and promptly scrapped the previous government’s plan to deport migrants to Rwanda. However, Labour faces pressure to show tangible results quickly, with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party poised to challenge Starmer’s administration on immigration, especially concerning the small boat crossings.
Although 827 people have crossed the Channel in the past week, Labour claims that the number of arrivals has decreased compared to the same period last year. The government also reported that nine return flights have been conducted in the past six weeks. Despite these efforts, Cooper’s plans faced an early setback when her preferred candidate to lead the newly proposed Border Security Command declined the role. The recruitment process for this position is still ongoing.