Labour is pressing ahead with the previous government’s plan to reopen two immigration centres in a bid to achieve the highest rate of removals since 2018.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said detention capacity will be increased with the provision of 290 beds across Campsfield House and Haslar.
The former, in Oxfordshire, closed in 2019 while the latter in Gospar, Hampshire, shut in 2015.
In 2022, the then Conservative government said it would re-open both facilities to increase detention capacity by 1,000 at any given time, at the cost of £339m.
There has been strong local opposition to the plans, with critics pointing out that Campsfield House closed following years of problems including hunger strikes, self harm and suicides.
A Home Office source said they take the welfare and safety of people in their care “very seriously” and removals will be carried out “with dignity and respect”.
Sky News understands that the long-term intention is for 1,000 beds to be made available across the two sites, but 290 are part of the first phase of development and building work.
According to the Home Office, ministers have set their sights on achieving over the next six months “the highest rate of removals of those with no right to be here, including failed asylum seekers” since 2018.
Staff will be redeployed to help drive an increase in returns, which the government said had dropped by 40% since 2010.
The measure is part of a wider effort to get a grip on the UK’s immigration and asylum system.
Labour promised in its election-winning manifesto to create a new Border Security Command to tackle people-smuggling gangs bringing migrants across the Channel, using money diverted from the now-scrapped Rwanda scheme.
The Tories spent around £700m on the plan but not a single asylum seeker was sent there under it because of legal setbacks, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer declaring it “dead and buried” days after taking office.
Voters will only put up with Labour’s blame game for so long
A “costly con” and a “political gimmick”: Labour’s verdict on the Tories’ Rwanda plan. Sound familiar?
This blame game is getting rather repetitive. Earlier this week Sir Keir Starmer slammed a “terrible inheritance” left by the Tories on prisons.
Now Labour is claiming a “dire inheritance” on border security.
Let’s not forget, either, Rachel Reeves’ claims of a “black hole” in the nation’s finances and Wes Streeting declaring “the NHS is broken”.
Okay, we get the message.
But the battle to “stop the boats” is potentially the toughest political fight Sir Keir will face against whoever becomes the new Tory leader.
Yvette Cooper is vowing to “clean up the mess the Tories made”, accusing the Tories of incompetence and a “staggering waste of taxpayers’ money”.
Yet facing such a daunting challenge, the new government – understandably – admits there are “no quick fixes” on border security and asylum.
But voters will only put up with Labour’s blame game for so long. On stopping the boats, possibly more than on any other issue, they want results.
As well as the extra beds, 100 new specialist intelligence officers will be brought into the National Crime Agency (NCA), the UK-wide body which has around 70 active investigations into people smuggling and trafficking groups.
This comes on top of the 50% uplift in the number of NCA officers stationed in Europol.
In addition, a new illegal working programme will be rolled out to investigate and target bosses who illegally employ people with no right to remain.
Read more:
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Starmer unveils plan to stop illegal migration crisis ‘at source’
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What Brits think of immigration
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday night, junior home office minister Seema Malhotra was unable to say when the approach would have an impact on small boat crossings, or whether scrapping the Rwanda plan would be enough to fund the measures.
Home Office figures showed 206 migrants crossed the English Channel in three boats on Monday, which has taken the 2024 provisional total of people to have crossed to 19,294.
This is a 10% increase on the figure recorded at this point last year, which was 17,620.
Immigration now tops the list of issues that Britons consider most important – for the first time since 2016 – according to a new poll by Ipsos released on Friday.
A Labour source said the Tories left behind a “dire inheritance” on border security and there are “no quick fixes”.
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Ms Cooper 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 into 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.”