The Government has just announced its plans to deport 14,500 undocumented migrants within six months, via the expansion of detention and removal centres, and the expansion of the National Crime Agency, part of the Border Security Command, through the deployment of up to 100 new specialist intelligence and investigations officers, to target “people smuggling gangs” and “stop the boats” in cooperation with European agencies. Plans also include a crackdown on employers hiring undocumented workers. This all signals confidence in the rhetoric of border militarisation and Islamophobic counter-terror powers, and an inclination towards criminalising survivors of trafficking. Similarly, the Border Security Command will be funded by money saved from the scrapping of the Rwanda plan. Instead of improving the safety of migrants, the Government will continue to further harm.
This announcement is consistent with the now-Government’s long-standing emphasis on deportation deals in the lead up to the General Election, including Starmer’s insistence that people should be deported back to Bangladesh, as well as his desire to secure EU-wide returns deals. This echoed the former Prime Minister’s agreements with Bangladesh, Frontex and the Calais Group.
Nine deportation flights have taken place since the change in Government, including a flight with over 200 people, and specifically the deportation of 46 people, to Vietnam and East Timor. These cruel deportations are a result of a joint statement of cooperation signed between the UK and Vietnam in April with the aim of implementing a “successful returns process”. New returns deals have also been signed with the Governments of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Serbia and Georgia.
Deportations are always cruel, even if they are framed as “voluntary”. It doesn’t matter where someone is deported to, because deportations inherently violate someone’s right to stay where they have chosen to build their home. At the Migrants’ Rights Network, we call for an end to this cruelty: to deportations, returns deals, and border militarisation. We urge this Government to scrap these oppressive plans.