Cooper facing backlash over crackdown on immigration

Yvette Cooper is facing a backlash over plans to reopen two troubled detention centres as part of Labour’s immigration crackdown.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

Yesterday, the home secretary announced a series of measures aimed at tackling illegal migration and improving border security, including a pledge to return the number of failed asylum seekers sent back to their home countries to 2018 levels over the next six months, meaning more than 14,000 deportations by the end of the year.

However, the 14,000 figure is far lower than the 45,000 returned in 2010 under the former Labour government and less than the 19,000 migrants who have arrived in Britain by crossing the Channel in small boats so far this year.

The government also revealed plans to increase detention capacity with 290 beds at two immigration removal centres, Campsfield in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, and Haslar in Gosport, Hampshire. But these plans are being criticised as a backwards step as both sites were plagued with problems before they shut in 2019 and 2015 respectively, including hunger strikes and suicides.

Critics say the plans are a waste of taxpayer money, lack detail and fail to recognise “the dignity and humanity of migrants”, especially in the wake of recent racist riots that targeted hotels housing asylum seekers across the country.

Amnesty International’s refugee and migrant rights programme director Steve Valdez-Symonds accused Labour of reheating the Conservative government’s rhetoric around border security.