Yvette Cooper has launched a major immigration crackdown amid soaring numbers of asylum seekers crossing the English Channel in small boats.
Companies which employ illegal immigrants could also face closure under the new approach, which is aimed at keeping Keir Starmer’s election pledge to “smash the criminal gangs” which traffic people from France to the UK.
Under the measures being set out today, 100 specialist intelligence officers and investigators will be brought into the National Crime Agency this year to target the people-smuggling gangs.
A new “intelligence-driven” programme will target employers who are profiting from hiring illegal workers. Those caught face fines, prosecution or “business closure orders”.
The number of immigration detention spaces will also be increased as the government aims to speed up the removal of those whose asylum claims are rejected.
Cooper announced the crackdown as the government comes under increasing pressure to stop small boat crossings in the Channel.
According to Home Office data, more than 800 asylum seekers have made the perilous journey in the last week alone.
The home secretary said: “We are taking strong and clear steps to boost our border security and ensure the rules are respected and enforced.
“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 in to smashing the criminal smuggling gangs organising dangerous boat crossings which undermine our border security and put lives at risk.
“And by increasing enforcement capabilities and returns, we will establish a system that is better controlled and managed, in place of the chaos that has blighted the system for far too long.”
One of the new government’s first acts following the general election on July 5 was to axe the Tories’ Rwanda scheme, which aimed to deport anyone crossing the Channel to east Africa.
However, despite announcing the policy in 2022, no flights ever took off.
Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick has vowed to bring back the Rwanda plan as party policy if he wins the race to succeed Rishi Sunak.
A Labour source said: “On border security and the asylum system, as in every other area of government, the sheer scale of incompetence and the staggering waste of taxpayer’s money under the Tories has left the new home secretary with a huge mess to clean up.
“We know there are no quick fixes to these complex challenges. But already we are taking the swift and decisive action required to strengthen our border security, crack down on the smuggling gangs and get our asylum system under control.”
Shadow home secretary James Cleverly said: “Labour clearly aren’t serious about tackling the people smugglers or stopping the boats.
“While more NCA resource and detention capacity is welcome, this is not nearly ambitious enough. Paired with their moves to cancel our deterrent, give an effective amnesty to thousands of illegal migrants, and failure to hire a head of their phantom border command, it doesn’t scratch the surface.
“It is time Labour offered a credible solution that will cut immigration and stop the boats.”
Steve Valdez-Symonds of Amnesty International UK, said: “A new set of ministers promoting an age-old message of fear and hostility regarding some of the most victimised and traumatised people who may ever arrive in the UK, means that smuggling gangs and racist and Islamophobic hate-mongers at home are likely to feed off this to everyone’s detriment.”