Nail bars and hand car washes will be targeted in a new illegal immigration blitz over the summer, the government has announced.
Around 1,000 staff previously working on the now-abandoned Rwanda deportation scheme will be redeployed to crack down on the beauty salons and car cleaning services.
New Labour Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said it was designed 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.
It comes as the new government tries to get to grips with the Channel migrant crisis, having killed off the Rwanda flights almost as soon as the election was completed at the start of the month.
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.
The crossing has also continued to prove fatal, with two deaths recorded last week and four deaths in the week before that.
Around 1,000 staff previously working on the now-abandoned Rwanda deportation scheme will be redeployed to crack down on the beauty salons and car cleaning services.
New Labour Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said it was designed 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.
At least 15,489 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year, with further arrivals on Saturday (pictured) 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.
Writing in the Sun on Sunday Ms Cooper said: ‘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.
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The PM unveiled plans last week to plough £84million of taxpayers money into trying to stop people making the journey.
He said the UK will fund social, health and educational schemes in the Middle East and Africa as a ‘statement of intent’ to try to stop migration at source.
He used a press conference at the meeting of dozens of European leaders at Blenheim Palace to say he was ‘resetting’ the UK’s approach and repeated his attack on the ‘gimmick’ that was the previous government’s Rwanda deportation flights plan.
However, he later refused to rule out the offshoring of migrant processing, saying he was ‘a pragmatist’ willing to look at ‘where cases can be processed closer to origin.’
In her article, Ms Cooper acknowledged that tackling small boats would take time and require ‘hard graft not sticking plasters’.
‘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,’ she 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.’
Border Force vessels intercepted hundreds of migrants yesterday, including a large number on a suspected stolen yacht.
The yacht used to bring migrants into Dover by the people smuggling gangs in northern France
The single mast boat was tied up next to Border Force catamaran Hurricane as three other groups of migrants arrived in the Port of Dover despite fog out at sea.
Large numbers of men as well as women and children were brought up the gangway at the immigration processing centre all wearing orange life jackets.
A migrant died in the early hours on Friday – taking the total number to have died so far this year to 22 people.
Just before 1am French authorities launched a rescue mission just off the coast of Calais.
On Tuesday night, one person drowned after a boat carrying 72 people was shipwrecked.
A joint operation between French and British authorities saw the surviving 71 people rescued and returned to Calais.
This was the first time since small boat crossings began that a British Border Force boat returned migrants to France, rather than the UK.
On July 12 four people were drowned when a boat loaded with 60 people deflated.