The Conservatives have pledged to deport 150,000 failed asylum seekers, foreign criminals and visa overstayers a year under a new Removals Force, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has announced.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Express at the Conservative Party Conference, Mr Philp said a Kemi Badenoch Government would return migrants to Afghanistan and Somalia, and would be prepared to deport Iranians once the mullahs of Tehran have been replaced.
Facial recognition and raids
Mr Philp detailed plans to use a network of live facial recognition cameras to detect, detain and deport illegal migrants. He said the Tories would also step up raids on places where illegal working is suspected, such as car washes, vape shops and candy stores on the high street.
“We would use technology like live facial recognition to identify people just walking down the street who shouldn't be in the country,” Mr Philp told the newspaper.
“We would certainly use the whole range of government databases if people, for example, try to claim benefits who aren't entitled to be in the country.”
End to voluntary payment schemes
The Conservatives have vowed to scrap controversial payments for migrants to encourage them to leave voluntarily, with Mr Philp saying Britain must “seize” control of the borders again. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood recently offered migrant families up to £40,000 to voluntarily leave the UK.
“We shouldn't be bribing illegal immigrants to leave, we should be requiring them to leave,” Mr Philp said. “For those that don't go voluntarily, it should be done using force. If for any reason that wasn't possible, we would use a safe third country like Rwanda instead.”
Channel crisis intensifies
The announcement comes as Labour's migrant crisis has intensified in recent weeks, with dinghies carrying more than 100 people intercepted off the coast of Portsmouth. Some 149 people were brought into Gosport on Sunday night, sparking fury as asylum seekers arrived at the home of the Royal Navy.
Two men died during another Channel migrant crossing in the early hours of Monday morning as people tried to get water and petrol out of their dinghy using shoes. A fire erupted after a petrol leak on a vessel which picked people up off the coast at Berck, south of Boulogne-sur-mer.
Jean-Marc Lamblin, skipper of the Berck lifeboat, told the Voix du Nord news outlet: “When we arrived, we counted at least 80 people on board, and there was a terrible smell of petrol. The boat was overloaded, but the situation was calm to begin with. People were happy to see us arrive – the boat was under way, and they knew they were going to be escorted [to Britain]. They were bailing out water using shoes — we're used to that.”
Mr Lamblin described pulling out a young woman with severe burns from a mixture of seawater and petrol, and two men in cardiac arrest. Two Somalian women aged 20 and 26 had been engulfed in flames, with one “weeping and in a state of total panic”.
Deportation targets
The Conservatives believe ramping up deportations is the best way to end the Channel migrant crisis. Mr Philp said the party would aim to have 150,000 people a year removed by the Removals Force, with foreign criminals a priority.
“There are 21,000 serious foreign criminals in the UK out on the streets, in the community, following release from prison,” he said. “They are very often committing serious crimes, including sexual assaults, including rape. They should all be deported.”
Asked about Iran, Mr Philp said: “Well, 35,000 people were killed there earlier this year. As soon as we were satisfied that that threat had gone, we certainly would send people back to Iran. Given 35,000 people have been killed on the streets, you would want to be a bit careful about that. But that doesn't mean to say Iranians who are illegal immigrants or foreign criminals can stay in the UK. They certainly should not stay in the UK. They should instead be taken to another safe third country.”
