Labour ups its anti-immigrant offensive

Since the Starmer government came to power in July this year, it has waged a war against immigrants. Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, promised to deploy 100 new specialist intelligence and investigations officers, and up the number of deportation flights, with the aim of raising deportation levels to their highest since 2018, with at least 14,385 to be deported by the end of the year.

In fact, she has kept her promise, with 9,400 people deported so far. These included 25 return flights to places such as Albania, Poland, Romania, and Vietnam, the first charter flight to Timor-Leste, and the biggest return flights ever to Nigeria and Ghana. Of these, almost 2,600 are forced deportations, an increase of 19% from 2023 when the Tories were still in power.

Labour scrapped the Tory plans to send immigrants to Rwanda after repeated legal challenges. Instead, Cooper is increasing return flights of immigrants, and strengthening the Border Security Command and the Returns and Enforcement Unit.

This offensive has been backed up by the media, including the BBC, who allow people like Kevin Saunders, retired chief official with the Border Agency, and darling of GB News, to broadcast their anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Keir Starmer has established close relations with the Italian government led by the far-right Giorgia Meloni, and had a “fantastic meeting” with her in September. Meloni informed Starmer of her success in reducing migrants to Italy.

The Starmer government is using the notion of “foreign criminals” to disguise its general war against migrants.  Labour introduced automatic deportation for foreign national offenders back in 2007/2008. These laws have become increasingly stricter. Many of these accept deportation under pressure, under the Early Removal Scheme.

Meanwhile, the Independent Monitoring Board announced that there had been a substantial increase in violence against detainees at the Gatwick Immigration Removal Centre (IRC), in 2023.  Staff there have been revealed to use racist and abusive language, and to be violent against detainees. Labour plans on re-opening Haslar IRC in Hampshire, and Campsfield House IRC in Oxfordshire.

Starmer and Cooper are looking to the model provided by Meloni, where a deal was reached with the Albanian government to hold 3,000 migrants picked up by the Italian coastguard, in two camps, whilst their claims are looked at. The Tory scheme of using Rwanda proved unworkable, but Labour are considering similar “offshore options”. Cooper praised the Italian scheme just a few days ago. The Italian far right government considers 19 countries to be “safe”. That is, migrants from these countries can be returned to their country of origin. These so-called safe countries include Egypt where there is a military dictatorship, and which is suffering the most repressive period in recent history.

Cooper heartily approves of the Italian scheme. It is clear what the priorities of this Labour government are. They praise a far-right racist regime, and scapegoat migrants. People fleeing famine, drought and war, much of it caused by capitalism itself, are persecuted, arrested, and deported. They are blamed for welfare cuts and lack of adequate housing, when the austerity programmes of the last decades, brought in by both Tory and Labour governments, have caused this.

Labour is no friend to the working class. Its anti-migrant policies feed Farage, Reform UK, and the rest of the far right.