Earlier this week, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced “a major surge” in immigration enforcement and returns activity, “to make sure that immigration and asylum rules are respected and enforced.”
She said the government has new plans for the next 6 months to achieve the highest rate of removals of those “with no right to be here, including failed asylum seekers.”
“We are taking strong and clear steps to boost our border security and ensure the rules are respected and enforced,” Cooper said.
“Our new Border Security Command is already gearing up, with new staff being urgently recruited and additional staff already stationed across Europe, working with European enforcement agencies to find every route in to smashing the criminal smuggling gangs organizing dangerous boat crossings which undermine our border security and putting lives at risk,” she continued.
“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,” she said.
The Jesuit Refugee Service UK (JRS UK) issued a statement saying they are “deeply disheartened” by the announced plans.
“We see time again how detention subjects vulnerable people to further trauma. Torture survivors compare it to torture,” the statement says.
“And any government that focuses on removals at all costs, blind to the human beings affected, has failed to learn the lessons of the ‘Windrush’ scandal. A focus on draconian and punitive immigration enforcement risks repeating these injustices,” the JRS continues.
“It drives people underground and leaving them even more vulnerable to exploitation. It will destroy lives. And, in a bid to look tough, it ignores the very real problems with our asylum system,” the statement adds.
“The government must urgently change course, and concentrate on extending protection to people who need it and allowing them to rebuild their lives,” the JRS statement concludes.
The announcement by the Home Office has put a damper on speculation the new Labour government put in place after the July 4 national elections in the UK would reverse the anti-immigrant policies pushed by the previous Conservative government.
Labour did squash the Conservative plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda, but otherwise has promised a more competent removal of undocumented residents, not an end to the practice.
National Crime Agency (NCA) Director General of Operations Rob Jones said tackling organized immigration crime “remains a key priority for the NCA and we are dedicating more effort and resource than ever before.”
“These extra officers will play a key role in that, with the NCA currently leading around 70 investigations into the highest harm people smuggling and trafficking groups,” he said.
“Taking on these dangerous and exploitative gangs requires international co-operation and we continue to further enhance our already strong relationship with Europol and other law enforcement partners. We are determined to do all we can to disrupt and dismantle these networks, whether they are operating in the UK or overseas,” Jones said.