The Cruelty is the Point: Labour’s Asylum Plans

Labour is the party of social justice and compassion, says the party’s website. A title it seems the party will have to unceremoniously drop after its latest populist stunt regarding immigration policy. When the Labour party took power, albeit with little excitement, the reasonable public breathed a sigh of relief. No more hare-brained schemes to transport migrants to Rwanda, no more squabbling about ‘economic migrants’, and finally a government filled with capable ministers who might address real concerns. This is how politics would return to a relative normal, with consensus-seeking strategies and a focus on unity.

Not so, after the Prime Minister has continuously bent to Reform’s dangerous rhetoric, stoking fears that the UK could turn into an ‘island of strangers’. It seems Starmer is determined to court Farage’s base of supporters, repeatedly abandoning kindness and common sense to pursue increasingly outlandish and unpopular strategies. Digital ID-cards, a suspension of applications to the refugee family reunion route, and now embracing a policy that would see British officials debase themselves to little more than bandits, seizing jewellery and other possessions from migrants in order to pay for the costs of processing their cases.

In a comedically out of touch commentary, Minister Alex Norris argued “It is right if those people have money in the bank, people have assets like cars, like e-bikes, they should be contributing.” No data has been produced on the number of asylum seekers possessing e-bikes, nor will it be, it is safe to assume. In the face of backlash, a Home Office source has sought to clarify claims surrounding sentimental jewellery and items such as wedding rings.” We will not seize items of jewellery at the border – we aren’t coming after anyone’s sentimental items of jewellery.”  

The new policies will also restrict family reunification and target child refugees. The Home Office has said it will consider denying state support to failed asylum seekers with children under 18, and “enforcing the removal of families, including children.” The comments summon images of the Trump administration’s ruthless family separations and detention of children at the US-Mexico border.

The policies are borrowed from the Danish immigration system, where Danish authorities are permitted to seize asylum seekers assets, including jewellery but excluding items of “special personal significance”, to fund the costs of their stay in Denmark. Denmark’s laws on family reunification are also more stringent, requiring both partners to be over the age of 24 and pass a Danish language test. The partner with residency must also not have claimed benefits in three years. Even more harshly, refugees who live in areas where over 50% of occupants are from what the government deems “non-Western” backgrounds, known as “parallel societies”, do not qualify for family reunification at all. Aspects of the parallel society policy have been challenged in the European Court of Justice, and labelled racist and discriminatory. This has done little to dissuade the UK government, as it boasts in a statement of the resulting fall in Danish asylum claims to a 40 year low as a consequence of these policies. 

It seems the government is ready to banish such nebulous concepts as dignity and compassion in favour of hard results, with little thought for how this will impact the long-term integration of asylum seekers. Labour MP Stella Creasy has denounced the policy, claiming the deportation system referenced in new policies will inevitably require “ICE-style raids to remove people - and their children.” At least 20 Labour MPs have expressed concern over the policies, but perhaps Starmer will be reassured by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch’s offer to rescue him from his own backbenchers in the event of a Labour rebellion. Indeed, the Home Secretary seems to have obtained some enthusiastic supporters of her policies – namely Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson.

The Labour government has a serious problem with its direction on immigration strategy. Its attempts at performative cruelty to appeal to Reform voters must end. A party of compassion and social justice should be focusing on establishing dignified and legal pathways to immigration, and celebrating our multicultural society, not seeking to out-perform the likes of Reform with racist, cruel and impractical policies. Starmer must change tack quickly to avoid permanent cultural shifts on immigration that will be devastating for British politics, and return to the true roots of his party.

Image: Eliot Lord

Licence.

No image changes made.