While Labour’s plans aimed at stopping small boat Channel crossings have left migration analysts unimpressed, they will be music to the ears of those who profit from illegal migration.
Yvette Cooper—the head of the Home Office, which has started labelling illegal migration not as such, but as “irregular” instead—has pledged to deport more than 14,500 people over the next six months. This would be at a higher rate than at any time since 2018 (itself a fairly sad indictment of recent Conservative Party administrations).
In response, Migration Watch chairman Alp Mehmet dismissed Cooper’s announcement as amounting to “no more than giving herself a goal of doing a better job of implementing her predecessor’s plan.” He told The European Conservative:
A few more beds in existing detention camps and recruiting a hundred more staff doesn’t show huge commitment. The criminal gangs will be laughing themselves silly as their bank balances bulge.
Home Secretary Cooper will also recruit 100 new “specialist intelligence and investigation officers” to target people-smuggling gangs. These officers will work at the National Crime Agency, which takes the view that it is most important to deter the migrants themselves. At present, for every gang that is “smashed,” another will quickly take its place—so profitable is the crossings business.
More than 5,000 migrants have crossed the Channel since Labour came into office on July 4th, according to official figures. That number under Labour will soon hit 10,000; 500 came last weekend alone.
Constant reporting on the number of migrants entering Britain illegally is bound to keep immigration ahead of other key issues, such as the economy and the NHS, as that of the greatest concern for the public (although the not-unrelated issue of crime is also growing in importance).
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage in particular has made clear his intention to continue battling on against the established parties’ migration records. His party responded to Cooper’s announcement today, on August 21st, by accusing Labour of “gaslighting the British people with their tough talk.”
New prime minister Sir Keir Starmer will visit Europol, the EU agency for law enforcement cooperation, on Thursday to further set out his government’s plans. Migration analysts will continue to follow these closely, but are likely to remain unimpressed.