The new UK government has unveiled stringent measures to battle illegal immigration, with a focus on immigrant expulsions and combatting smuggler gangs.
“We are taking strong and clear steps to boost our border security and ensure the rules are respected and enforced,” Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in a statement on Wednesday. "Our new Border Security Command is already gearing up, with new staff being urgently recruited and additional staff already stationed across Europe."
“They will work with European enforcement agencies to find every route into smashing the criminal smuggling gangs organising dangerous boat crossings which undermine our border security and put lives at risk," she added.
The fight against illegal immigration was a key electoral issue, following 14 years of Conservative rule.
Following his election earlier this year, Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer dropped his predecessors’ plans to deport undocumented migrants to Rwanda. He has pledged to handle immigration “humanely,” while decreasing the number of both legal and illegal immigrants.
To this end, Cooper intends to ramp up deportations. She said staff were being redeployed to increase the number of rejected asylum seekers being deported, which had plunged by 40% since 2010.
Within the next six months, Cooper aims to reach the 2018 level of expulsions, which comes up to roughly 14,000 deportations, according to The Times of London.
Around 300 officers have been reassigned to review thousands of cases of failed asylum applications and returns, both forced and voluntary, according to the Home Office.
The Home Secretary also plans to tackle smugglers. Up to 100 new intelligence and investigative officers are being deployed within the National Crime Agency to fight these gangs and prevent dangerous boat crossings, according to the statement.
Additionally, the Home Office intends to target employers who hire undocumented migrants.
