UK broadens crackdown on tiny boat crossings to deport over 14,000 migrants.
Keir Starmer’s government pledged to increase deportations of people with no legal right to stay in the UK to the highest rate in five years, an effort to show it is responding to Britons’ concerns about rising immigration.
The Home Office said on Wednesday it will recruit as many as 100 intelligence officers at the National Crime Agency to help dismantle organised crime groups operating small boat crossings by asylum seekers across the English Channel. It also said it would increase migrant detention capacity and crack down on firms hiring illegal workers, as the new Labour administration grapples with an issue that undermined the Conservatives under former prime minister Rishi Sunak.
The measures are part of Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s plan to lift the removal rate – including of asylum seekers whose claims were rejected – to the highest level since 2018 over the next six months, according to the statement. The Home Office said that effectively means removing over 14,389 people.
“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,” Cooper said.
But there’s a risk for Labour if it does not show progress quickly enough. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which drove the Conservatives to distraction in the run-up to the election, is determined now to make life difficult for Starmer on immigration – especially on the small boat crossings.
A total of 827 people have crossed the channel in the past week, though Labour said arrivals are lower since it took office compared to the same period last year. It also said there have been nine returns flights in the past six weeks.
Cooper’s plans were dealt an early blow following reports that her top pick to lead a new Border Security Command turned the job down. The government confirmed on Monday the recruitment process is still under way.
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