Keir Starmer has boasted of deporting a record number of refused asylum seekers and overseas criminals since scrapping the Rwanda scheme, using language that has dismayed human rights campaigners.
The Home Office said on Thursday it had returned more than 16,400 “immigration offenders and foreign criminals” since the election in July, the highest six-month total since 2018.
The department said in a statement that enforced returns were up 24% compared with the previous 12 months. Since July, 2,580 of those removed had been convicted criminals from overseas – a 23% increase on last year, it said.
Starmer suggested quick returns provided a deterrent that was better than the “wasteful” Rwanda scheme, which would have cost £600m to remove 300 people to Kigali.
“For the individuals that are being smuggled, the disincentive is you’re wasting your money, and if you get to the UK, you’re going to be returned to where you came from,” he said. “I’m really pleased that the figures for the last six months show record numbers of people being returned, 16,400 people who should not be in the UK.
“It’s the highest number now for six or seven years, because this government has prioritised making sure that we are returning people who shouldn’t be here, not wasting our time on things like the Rwanda scheme, which wasn’t working.”
James Wilson, the director of the NGO Detention Action, said: “It’s deeply concerning to see the government use such dehumanising language about people seeking asylum and other migrants.
“In their rush to remove people, they risk stepping over essential safeguards, in some cases separating children from loving parents and removing people who have been in the UK since childhood.
“While we welcome the increase in processing of asylum claims, each application must be considered fully and fairly and safe routes must be urgently introduced, to reduce the need for those dangerous journeys.”
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, set the target of overtaking the 2018 total after Labour ended the Tories’ Rwanda deportation scheme and switched hundreds of immigration staff to work on removing people to their countries of origin.
The Conservatives criticised Starmer for cancelling the Rwanda scheme. Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the opposition, has said the Rwanda policy would have created a powerful deterrent, stopping migrants paying people-smugglers to take them across the Channel in small boats.
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Earlier on Thursday, Starmer announced a new sanctions regime targeting people smugglers, which he said would deter individuals from becoming involved in the trade as they would face losing their UK assets.
“In the end, there has to be a deterrent, and the deterrent for the gangs – because their incentive is to make a lot of money – is: you’re not going to make any money because we’re going to seize it and we’re going to put you on trial and you’re going to go to prison,” he said.
The Conservatives have claimed Labour is returning a “tiny” 5% of the migrants who had arrived since they entered office. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: “The government is being deeply dishonest by claiming returns that mainly have nothing to do with small boat arrivals will act as a deterrent. The Rwanda scheme would have been a real deterrent, but Labour cancelled it before it even started.”
Source: theguardian.com
