LABOUR have been panned for their "grotesque" plans to intensify the deportation of undocumented migrants.
It comes after the Home Secretary vowed to “increase returns” of migrants in the UK “with no right to be here” as she said the asylum system was in “chaos”.
Writing in The Sun, Yvette Cooper said she will deploy a team of more than 1000 staff to ramp up operations on undocumented migrants.
In a piece for the newspaper, she hit out at the previous Tory government’s “preoccupation with Rwanda and headline chasing”.
She said: “The asylum system is in chaos – the backlog has soared with thousands of people in costly hotels, and the number of enforced removals is down by a staggering 50 per cent in the past decade.
“I was shocked to discover the Conservatives had 1000 civil servants working on the Rwanda Partnership.
“Not any more. We’ve moved staff instead into a new Returns and Enforcement programme to increase returns of those with no right to be here and to make sure rules are respected and enforced, starting with an increase in illegal working raids.
“We’ve directed Immigration Enforcement to intensify their operations over the summer, with a focus on employers who are fuelling the trade of criminal gangs by exploiting and facilitating illegal working here in the UK – including in car washes and in the beauty sector.
“And we are drawing up new plans for fast track decisions and returns for safe countries.”
Speaking to The National, Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman hit out at both the "disgraceful legacies of Tory rule" but that Labour's plans were "no surprise".
"They [the Tories] punished, scapegoated and dehumanised some of the world's most marginalised people with some of the most appalling and far-right policies of any UK government in history," Chapman (below) said.
She continued: "A lot of the infrastructure used was inherited from the previous Labour government, so, unfortunately, it is no surprise that Yvette Cooper and her colleagues are planning to double down on it.
"This is part of a doomed attempt to stop the Reform Party by replicating all of their policies. It will not work, and it will only make things worse for people across the country.
"It is real people who will pay the price for these grotesque attacks. We need to build solidarity against the forces of darkness, not beat up on people who've already been targeted by inhuman Tory policies.
"It is not so long ago that Labour politicians were hailing the show of solidarity that blocked Home Office vans on Kenmure Street. I hope that they will now stand with campaigners and communities and stop this crackdown.
"We must stand together to push for real support for refugees and migrant communities and an end to the dawn raids, detentions and hostile environment build up by successive UK governments."
It’s an issue Cooper has previously come under criticism for with the SNP’s Stephen Flynn (below) warning her that the only way to undermine criminal gangs operating in the Channel was to provide safe and legal routes for migrants.
The move has already been met with criticism on social media, with Scottish Greens campaigner Ellie Gomersall writing: “I hope they (Labour MSPs) condemn this disgraceful move by their own Home Secretary with the same vehemence they showed at Kenmure Street.”
The reference to Kenmure Street is in relation to a previous protest in Glasgow in 2021 in which two men who were being detained in an immigration van were released after protesters surrounded the vehicle.
Newborn baby left homeless
It has also been reported that a father with a newborn baby and a mother with two children are among asylum seekers who have been left homeless by the Home Office after it wrongly withdrew their claims.
The Guardian reports that the families were ordered to leave their accommodation and had financial support cut off after not receiving invitations to an interview because of the Home Office’s own errors.
The department has now been ordered to reconsider the cases after the asylum seekers won a legal challenge at the first-tier tribunal, alongside two men from Iraq and Sudan, while 13 similar cases are still to be heard.
Tribunal judge Sehba Haroon Storey said people must not be “deprived of protection through no fault of their own” and extra caution should be exercised for vulnerable people and children.
The Home Office said: “We are carefully considering the court’s findings and will respond in due course.”
