Labour urged to drop Tory rhetoric or risk failing to fix broken asylum system

Labour will be at real risk of failing to reform the UK’s broken asylum system unless it challenges Tory rhetoric and stops focusing on the deportation of asylum seekers, the head of the Refugee Council has said.

Enver Solomon, the charity’s chief executive, said Keir Starmer must use the language of “compassion and humanity” in order to tackle the vilification of refugees.

The home secretary’s plans to expand detention without opening safe routes are “costly and unnecessary” and the government must instead accelerate grant rates for asylum claims to tackle the backlog and community tensions around asylum hotels, he said.

There is growing concern from charities, unions and left-leaning MPs that the government is adopting the language and policies established by the Tories around asylum and immigration.

Last month, Yvette Cooper drew criticism after announcing plans to ramp up deportations to levels not seen since 2018, with a target of expelling more than 14,500 refused asylum seekers within the next six months. “Those caught working illegally and eligible for removal will be detained, pending their swift removal,” the Home Office said.

Solomon said the Labour government had not yet challenged the political rhetoric that had contributed to the hatred and vilification of refugees.

He said: “Angry talk of invasion, stopping the boats and labelling everyone as ‘illegal’ has raised the temperature and had the effect of stripping people fleeing war and oppression from the world’s trouble spots of their stories and humanity.

“The challenge now is to ensure that the language of compassion and humanity is adopted by all politicians, with government taking the lead.”

On 21 August, Cooper said 300 caseworkers had already been reassigned to progress thousands of failed asylum and returns cases, including enforced and voluntary returns, and announced the reopening of two controversial immigration removal centres.

Solomon said the home secretary’s plans for mass detention and deportation of refused asylum seekers were immoral, expensive and impractical.

“Plans to expand immigration detention are wrong. It’s a costly and unnecessary move, when the UK already has a very large detention estate.

“Government should be seeking to end the use of detention as there are more effective and humane alternatives that have been piloted by the Home Office and shown to work. We should be learning from these rather than doubling down on the excessive use of detention,” he said.

After attacks on asylum hotels in Rotherham and Tamworth this summer by far-right activists – some of whom were chanting Rishi Sunak’s promise to “stop the boats” – Solomon said the asylum system should be overhauled to reconfigure asylum decision-making and accommodation.

“The current private contractors have consistently failed to deliver and it’s now time to bite the bullet and end the contracts as soon as possible. The government must work hand in hand with councils to ensure they are fully equipped to house people in local communities in a safe and dignified way that ensures value for taxpayers’ money.

“Following the riots, it is also vital that serious work is led by government on community cohesion, including a clear plan on refugee integration,” he said.

Starmer has promised to “smash the gangs” that exploit people seeking asylum across the Channel, but has resisted calls to establish safe routes for those wanting to come to the UK.

In the year ending June 2024, Afghans were the top nationality crossing the Channel, making up just under a fifth of all small boat arrivals. Iranians (13%) were in second place, followed by arrivals from Vietnam and Turkey, both on 10%.

Half of the 36,000 people seeking asylum who live in hotels come from just five countries with high asylum grant rates, Solomon said – Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, Sudan and Syria. “There is now a unique opportunity to do much better. Instead of taking a make do and mend approach, it’s now time to radically reconfigure asylum decision-making and asylum accommodation,” he said.

Amnesty International’s refugee and migrant rights programme director, Steve Valdez-Symonds, has previously accused Labour of “reheating” the Conservative government’s rhetoric around border security.

“This ‘securitised’ approach to asylum and immigration will simply deter and punish many of the people most in need of crossing borders, people who are therefore often most vulnerable to criminal exploitation,” he said.

Cooper has announced plans to recruit 100 investigators and intelligence officers to target people-smuggling gangs as part of measures to clamp down on illegal migration.

The National Crime Agency will find specialists to dismantle and disrupt organised immigration crime networks that exploit asylum seekers, she said.

As of 19 August, 19,294 people had crossed the Channel in 2024 – more than in the same period the previous year but below the level in 2022.

In the Commons on Monday, the Scottish National party MP Pete Wishart used a debate on this summer’s riots to call on Cooper to “stop demonising asylum seekers”.

“Where [Cooper] says she wants to debate, does she accept that the way that immigrants and asylum seekers are being betrayed by a whole host of political voices has helped to foster and foment and even encourage some of the scenes that we witnessed?

“And those that will be whipping up this type of activity must be held to account, as are those that peddled the misinformation? And will she also help that debate by talking a little bit more positively about immigration, stop demonising asylum seekers?”

The Home Office has been approached for comment.