Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer proposed on Thursday a migration deal with the EU if the party wins the next election, prompting the Conservatives to claim Britain will become a “dumping ground” for asylum seekers.
Starmer’s plans for a payback deal with Brussels have sparked controversy, with the Tories attacking his willingness to take part in an EU migration burden-sharing scheme, allegedly undercutting Brexit in the process.
Labour’s public political divisions on immigration are a risk for Starmer, but some experts say that while his solution is flawed, it may be more feasible than trying to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Home Secretary Zuela Braverman was quick to condemn Starmer’s plans, saying he would “agree to allow the UK to become a dumping ground for millions of illegal immigrants that Europe does not want”.
Starmer’s plan would involve Britain sending clandestine migrants back across the English Channel, but a quid pro quo would mean Britain accepting asylum seekers who cross the Mediterranean into the EU.
“The UK will be forced to remove more than 100,000 illegal immigrants from the safety of Europe every year,” Immigration Secretary Robert Jenrick claimed.
That’s the Conservative estimate based on EU rules that set immigration quotas for member states, weighted by the size of the UK’s population and the strength of its economy.
Starmer said the government was talking “nonsense”, adding that any immigration deal would be negotiated and the UK would not be bound by any EU plans because “we are not a member of the EU”.
However, the prospect of Starmer becoming Prime Minister does open up the possibility of EU-UK cooperation that would have been unthinkable under a Conservative government.
Starmer was at the headquarters of EU crime agency Europol in The Hague on Thursday to discuss greater police co-operation against human traffickers operating in the English Channel.
The Labor leader said he wanted to “crush” people smuggling gangs and would use “serious crime orders” to freeze assets and restrict their movements.
Starmer has confirmed he will not stick to Rishi Sunak’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. The Prime Minister proposed the move in response to the increasing number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats.
Barrister Colin Yeo, who specializes in asylum law, said the idea of an effective UK-EU repatriation deal depended on the nature of any agreement and whether it could be negotiated.
But he said: “It certainly seems more reasonable than moving tens of thousands of people to Rwanda.
“The number of refugees who will end up in the UK will probably be lower than they are now. And you’ll know who they are in advance. They’ll have been identified – you’ll end up with a more controlled system.”
The government’s Illegal Immigration Act bans undocumented immigrants from claiming asylum in the UK and places a legal duty on the Home Office to detain such people and remove them to Rwanda or a safe third country.
The Institute for Public Policy Research, a think tank, warned last month that this could leave tens or hundreds of thousands of people in the UK in legal limbo and need support, potentially costing taxpayers up to £6.4bn a year.
Another key part of restoring border controls is international diplomacy.
Some Labor politicians and civil servants pointed to the 2002 agreement between then home secretary David Blunkett and French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, which led to the The Sangat refugee camp near Leh, from which migrants crossed into Britain on the back of a truck, was closed.
Under the deal, Britain agreed to take in 1,200 refugees in the camps and France agreed to take in 3,600 refugees.
Sir David Normington, permanent secretary at the Home Office between 2005 and 2011, said a migration deal with the EU could be a “game changer”.
“Obviously this means an agreement to accept a certain number of asylum seekers in exchange for the return of other asylum seekers,” he added. “I think it does depend partly on the numbers and also on whether any sort of payback deal with the rest of the EU works effectively.”
Normington said that while any deal with the EU might not change the overall number of asylum seekers coming to the UK, it might change public perceptions of border policing.
“If these things could be done, it would appear as if there is some control. There is very little control at the moment,” he added.
As well as scrapping the Rwanda policy, Starmer has pledged to reverse a core tenet of the Illegal Immigration Act – which bans undocumented immigrants from applying for asylum. This would facilitate the consideration of cases and the possibility of accepting some asylum seekers and deporting others.
A senior EU diplomat said options for a migration deal between Britain and the bloc were discussed at a ministerial meeting last year between Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.
The diplomat said such a deal “must strike a balance between the EU and the UK”, including in terms of the number of people moving between them.
But they added that any discussions with Labor would be “premature” as Starmer has not yet taken office.
The European Commission said member states did not authorize it to negotiate a return agreement with the UK.
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