Amnesty International accuses government of ‘reheating’ old migration messages – The Irish News

A leading human rights campaigner has accused Whitehall of rehashing old messages after the Home Secretary announced a crackdown on organised immigration crime.

Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International’s refugee and migrant rights programme director, called Yvette Cooper’s new package “appalling” and warned that a “bulleted” approach could deter genuine asylum seekers from crossing the border if they needed to.

Conservative shadow home secretary James Cleverly said he welcomed the Labour government’s pledge to increase funding for the National Crime Agency (NCA), but urged ministers to be more ambitious in their plans to reduce cross-Channel migration.

Ms Cooper on Wednesday outlined plans to bolster the NCA with up to 100 new specialist intelligence officers to disrupt immigration gangs. She warned that the Home Office would target companies and individuals who employ people who do not have the right to work in the UK.

Her department has also promised an “increase in enforcement and return flights” to achieve the highest rate of deportations since 2018.

The announcement followed nine ‘successful return flights in the past six weeks, including the largest chartered return flight ever’.

According to the Home Office, the number of deportations of failed asylum seekers has fallen by 40% since 2010, the start of the 14-year Conservative government.

The Ministry of Interior also revealed that NCA officials have conducted about 70 investigations into the most dangerous groups of people smugglers and traffickers.

Ms Cooper pledged to open 290 beds at the immigration detention centres that closed between 2015 and 2019: in Campsfield near Oxford and Haslar in Gosport, Hampshire.

The PA news agency understands it is the first phase of a longer-term plan to open a total of 1,000 beds across the two sites, a plan which was launched under the previous Conservative government.

“By increasing enforcement capacity and revenues, we will create a system that is better policed ​​and managed, instead of the chaos that has plagued the system for far too long,” Cooper said.

“We are taking strong and clear steps to improve our border security and ensure the rules are followed and enforced.”

But Mr Valdez-Symonds said: “It is appalling to see the new government rehashing the previous government’s rhetoric about ‘border security’ and ‘busting gangs’, while simultaneously ignoring the urgent need to provide safe asylum routes and a clear guarantee of asylum for refugees arriving here.

“People in urgent need of help – including those fleeing war and persecution in countries such as Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria and Iran – will continue to come to the UK and other countries. The Government must create safe routes that reduce the dangers of dangerous border crossings and the risk of exploitation by ruthless smuggling gangs.

“This ‘assured’ approach to asylum and immigration will simply deter and punish many of the people who need to cross the border the most, and who are therefore often the most vulnerable to criminal exploitation.”

Enver Solomon of the Refugee Council suggested that most people whose asylum claims were rejected would leave the UK voluntarily if they received return support.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If you treat people with respect and humanity and support them to return, many more people will return.

“Two-thirds of people whose asylum applications are rejected return voluntarily.”

According to the Home Office, voluntary declarations rose by 65% ​​in the year to March 2024 compared to the previous year.

Councillor Ian Middleton opposed the previous government’s proposal to reopen the Campsfield House deportation centre, on the edge of his Kidlington South ward.

The Green Party councillor urged Oxfordshire County Council members to voice their opposition to the centre in 2022, calling the plan “cruel, ineffective and a costly retrograde step”.

Asked about Ms Cooper’s announcement, he told the PA news agency: “When it was operating as a detention centre before, there were a number of incidents – riots, some suicides and there was a lot of unrest about it.”

He added: “These people come here, I think, under very difficult circumstances. Often they are people who have come in small boats, which is not something you do lightly. They are risking their lives and wanting to escape oppression, war and, you know, terrible things in their own countries.”

Mr Middleton said plans to speed up processing were “welcome” so fewer people were left with questions about their immigration status.

Former Home Secretary and now Ms Cooper’s ‘shadow’, Mr Cleverly, said: ‘Labour is clearly not serious about tackling people smugglers or stopping boats.

“While increased resources and detention capacity for the NCA are welcome, this is far from ambitious enough.

“When you combine this with their attempts to cancel our deterrent (the plan to send asylum seekers coming to Rwanda in small boats), giving effective amnesty to thousands of illegal migrants and not hiring a head of their phantom border command, this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Dr Peter Walsh, from the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, told the Today programme that the plan to increase deportations to the highest level since 2018 was “not a particularly high bar”.

He said: “If we look at forced evictions, there were 6,000 last year and in 2018 there were 9,000 – so this would require 3,000 more, a 50% increase, which seems achievable.”

In the year ending March 2024, there were 7,016 forced declarations, an increase of 70% compared to the previous year (4,127).

Alp Mehmet, chair of Migration Watch UK, said: “The Home Secretary’s announcement simply amounts to her setting herself the goal of better delivering on her predecessor’s plan.

“A few extra beds in existing detention centres and hiring a hundred extra staff does not show a huge commitment. The criminal gangs will laugh themselves silly as their bank balances swell.”