Nail bars and car washes will be targeted by immigration officers as they step up enforcement action over the summer, the Home Secretary has announced.
Writing in The Sun on Sunday, Yvette Cooper said 1,000 civil servants had been redeployed from working on the now-abandoned Rwanda scheme to staffing a new “returns and enforcement programme”.
The new programme is intended to “increase returns of those with no right to be here and to make sure rules are respected and enforced” and will see raids on businesses suspected of employing illegal workers ramped up.
Ms Cooper added: “We have directed Immigration Enforcement to intensify their operations over the summer, with a focus on employers who are fuelling the trade of criminal gangs by exploiting and facilitating illegal working here in the UK – including in car washes and in the beauty sector.
“And we are drawing up new plans for fast track decisions and returns for safe countries.”
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.
Sir Keir Starmer also used this week’s European Political Community summit to discuss migration with fellow European leaders, and signalled he would be open to considering offshore processing arrangements similar to that between Italy and Albania.
But he has been criticised by Conservatives for scrapping the Rwanda scheme on his first day in office, with opponents arguing it provided a necessary deterrent to those seeking to make the crossing.
In her article, Ms Cooper acknowledged that tackling small boats would take time and require “hard graft not sticking plasters”.
She said: “We’ve inherited a difficult summer with record numbers of crossings already this year, and we know tackling the problem will take steady hard graft not gimmicks.”
At least 15,489 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year, with further arrivals on Saturday likely to have pushed that number well above 15,500.
Recent good weather has seen a surge in crossings over the past two weeks, with the number of people making the journey in 2024 still on course to be well up on 2023 and around the same level as the previous record year, 2022.
The crossing has also continued to prove fatal, with two deaths recorded last week and four deaths in the week before that.
Ms Cooper said: “Most people in this country want to see a properly controlled and managed asylum system, where Britain does its bit to help those fleeing conflict and persecution, but where those who have no right to be in the country are swiftly removed.
“For far too long under the Conservatives, we have had just costly chaos – that has to change now.”
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