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UK Illegal Immigrants Crackdown: The Labour Party government in the United Kingdom is doubling down on its efforts to curb illegal immigration as anti-immigrant hardliner Reform UK gains political momentum. In January alone, immigration enforcement teams raided 828 premises, including an Indian restaurant where seven people were arrested and four detained.
The UK-wide ‘blitz’ saw the highest amount of enforcement activity against illegal workers in a single month in over five years, the Keir Starmer government said in a statement. The government also claims to have sent four of the “biggest return flights in the UK’s history” with immigration offenders.
The action comes as the Starmer government faces intense scrutiny over its efforts to secure the UK’s borders from illegal immigrants. The government has said that it was cracking down on illegal workers, who arrive in small boats to the UK lured by false promises of employment.
Many have drawn parallels between the UK’s actions to those of United States President Donald Trump, who also ramped up anti-immigration raids across the country. Similar to footage released by the immigration enforcement agencies in the US, the UK government has for the first time released footage of immigrants being taken on deportation flights. One of them had his hands chained to his waist, reminiscent of the Trump administration’s handcuffed deportees.
Critics, however, have slammed the Starmer government for indulging in “performative tactics” and “playing into the negative narrative” around immigrants.
In a 73 per cent increase from January last year, the enforcement agencies arrested 609 illegal workers in January this year. The arrests were made at nail bars, vape shops, warehouses, car washes, and restaurants, including an Indian restaurant in Humberside.
Moreover, the Starmer government has returned nearly 19,000 “failed asylum seekers, foreign criminals and other immigration offenders” to their countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.
The government has said that enforcement returns are up 24 per cent and removals of foreign national offenders are up 21 per cent ever since it came to power.
“These figures represent the highest rate of returns seen in the UK since 2018 and include the 4 biggest returns charter flights in the UK’s history, with a total of more than 850 people on board,” a statement by the government read. While the government is yet to provide a country-wise break-up of the latest deportations, past data shows that Indians made up the second-highest population among enforcement returns of asylum and non-asylum seekers by the UK in the year ending September 2024. Enforcement return refers to the deportation of an illegal migrant by the government.
As many as 118 Indians seeking asylum in the UK were deported in the year ending September 2024, second only to Albanians, as per data provided by the Home Office. This would include data before the Starmer government’s formation in July 2024. Among non-asylum seekers, 203 Indians were deported, second to Romanians.
Overall, with 321 deportations, Indians were the sixth-ranking nationality among enforcement returns. This marked an 81 per cent increase in the number of Indians deported in the previous year (till September 2023).
A whopping 5,594 non-asylum-seeking Indians chose voluntary return in the same time frame. As many as 504 asylum-seeking Indians also chose voluntary return. Indians made up the largest population to opt for voluntary returns.
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