- Author, Thomas Mackintosh
- Role, BBC News
Car washes and parts of the beauty industry will be targeted by immigration officers as they step up their crackdown over the summer, the Home Secretary has announced.
In an article in the Sun on Sunday newspaper, Yvette Cooper said officials had been redeployed to run a “return and enforcement programme” targeting businesses suspected of employing illegal workers.
Yvette Cooper said she was “shocked to discover” that 1,000 officials were working on a plan to send migrants to Rwanda.
The Rwanda plan, a flagship policy of the last Conservative government, was abandoned by Labour days after Sir Keir Starmer won the general election.
Ms Cooper wrote in the newspaper: “We have asked immigration authorities to step up their operations over the summer, focusing on employers who fuel the criminal gangs’ trade by exploiting and facilitating illegal work here in the UK, particularly in car washes and the beauty sector.
“And we are developing new plans for expedited decisions and returns to safe countries.
“Most people in this country want to see a properly controlled and managed asylum system, where Britain does its part to help those fleeing conflict and persecution, but where those who have no right to be in the country are swiftly removed.”
Labour has made border security one of its top priorities in government and has already taken steps to establish the Border Security Command promised in its manifesto.
In her article, Ms Cooper acknowledges that tackling small boats would take time and would require “hard work, not band-aids”.
The prime minister also used this week’s European Political Community summit to discuss migration with fellow EU leaders and indicated he would be open to the idea of offshore processing arrangements similar to the one between Italy and Albania.
But he was criticised by conservatives for abandoning the Rwanda project on his first day in office, with opponents saying it was a necessary deterrent to those seeking to make the crossing.
At least 15,489 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year, with Saturday’s additional arrivals expected to take that figure well above 15,500.
The Channel crossing continues to prove deadly, with two deaths recorded last week and four deaths on July 12.
