Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, is announcing a raft of new immigration reforms on Monday. Photo / Getty Images
Countries that refuse to take back illegal migrants from Britain will face visa bans, Shabana Mahmood is to announce.
States that will not accept the deportation of failed asylum seekers or foreign criminals are to face a “sliding scale” of penalties, from the removal of fast-track visa services to bans on entry documents for everyone from tourists to senior politicians.
On Monday, the Home Secretary will announce plans to block people from travelling to the UK from Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo unless there is a rapid improvement in the number of returned migrants they accept.
Other countries will also be at risk of a future crackdown. Those with the worst records for accepting refused asylum seekers also include Somalia, Bangladesh, Iran and Egypt, according to analysis of Home Office data by the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory.
The visa bans, which mirror measures introduced by Donald Trump, the US President, against some African and East Asian nations during his first term, are among a string of measures to ramp up the removal of illegal migrants and foreign criminal offenders.
Reforms to be announced by Mahmood will include legislation to prevent immigration judges from putting migrants’ rights to a family life under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) ahead of protecting the public and controlling the UK’s borders.
Mahmood will commit the UK to working with other European countries on reforms to the ECHR in an attempt to prevent it from blocking deportations.
In addition, illegal migrants will be restricted by law to only one appeal against their removal, rather than “endless” appeals where they cite different reasons at different times to remain in Britain.
The appeals will be decided by a Danish-style independent board of adjudicators with powers to identify and weed out unfounded cases.
Mahmood said: “Illegal migrants and foreign criminals are exploiting our human rights laws. I share the public’s fury at seeing our laws used against us. It is an outrage that an arsonist sentenced to five years in jail can’t be deported because his sibling lives in the country.
“We will write domestic laws so the safety of British citizens comes first. We will bear down on vexatious human rights claims that ground flights. Bogus cases raised by claimants without a leg to stand on will be heard and dismissed faster.”
In a crackdown on “pull factors” driving Channel crossings, refugees who enter the UK illegally will be forced to wait 20 years before they can apply for permanent settlement. Refugee status will become temporary, with reviews every 30 months to determine whether their home country is safe for them to be returned.
The plans, to be set out in a 33-page blueprint, are Starmer’s latest attempt to take the fight to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which is leading in the polls.
There is turbulence within Labour over the Prime Minister’s leadership after he ditched Budget plans to raise income tax, and last week’s briefing war against possible leadership rivals.
No 10 sources insisted last week that Starmer would fight any challenge, with Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, named as a supposed rival. Mahmood, who has been tipped as a possible future Labour leader, described the attacks on Streeting as “horribly embarrassing”.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, she said: “We all have important, difficult jobs to do and it is incumbent on all of us Cabinet ministers to focus on the job.”
On Sunday, the Home Secretary denied to Sky News that her immigration crackdown was “racist”.
Challenged by Trevor Phillips, a Sky presenter, that Labour had been “panicked” into a “racist” immigration policy, Mahmood said: “I reject that entirely. I am the child of immigrants. My parents came to this country legally in the late 60s and the early 70s. This is a moral mission for me.”
She has previously warned countries refusing to take back illegal migrants that she expected them to “play ball, play by the rules and if one of your citizens has no right to be in the country, you do need to take them back”.
On Monday, she will reveal that countries will first be issued with a warning that they face visa curbs if they continue to block returns. This would be followed by removal of fast-track services, where visitors pay to get their papers more quickly.
In the second stage of penalties, visas for diplomats and VIPs would be removed, followed by a third stage of a ban on all visas – from tourists up to a country’s president. The sanctions are likely to be targeted initially at countries where there is no co-operation on returns.
Home Office data show that by June last year there were 12 countries to which fewer than 5% of recently refused asylum seekers were returned after a final negative decision on their application.
The prospect of visa bans was raised earlier this year by both Mahmood and Starmer, but this is the first time the Government has explicitly committed to them. Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, also floated the proposal last year.
Mahmood will legislate to reform how the ECHR’s Article 8, which protects family life, is interpreted by judges to prioritise public safety and interests over those of illegal migrants.
This will include narrowing the definition of “family” to immediate family, such as child or parent, rather than cousins, brothers or step-children.
The Home Secretary said: “It defies belief that a man who killed two [people] by dangerous driving cannot be removed because his partner lives here. The supposed harm that the removal of an illegal migrant will cause to extended family members cannot come before the safety of the British people.”
She will also join with at least nine other EU countries to negotiate reform to Article 3 of the ECHR, which protects migrants against “inhuman and degrading” treatment but which ministers admit has been “expanded beyond what is reasonable” to include poor quality healthcare in their home countries.
Migrants who form new relationships or have children while awaiting removal will no longer be able to claim them as reasons to stay in the UK unless there are “exceptional” circumstances. If rejected by the new appeal board, they will face automatic deportation with no right of further appeal except on a point of law to a court.
Modern slavery laws – a legacy of Baroness May, the former prime minister – will be rewritten to require migrants to make a claim as a victim as soon as they arrive in the UK, rather than allowing them to raise them unexpectedly later on. Definitions of modern slavery will be tightened to prevent abuses.
Starmer said: “In a more volatile world, people need to know our borders are secure and rules are enforced. These reforms will block endless appeals, stop last minute claims and scale up removals of those with no right to be here.”
But Chris Philp, the shadow Home Secretary, said: “Tinkering around the edges as Labour proposes won’t work. Only the Conservatives have a proper plan to leave the ECHR and deport all foreign criminals and illegal immigrants.
“Labour is living in fantasy land with these half-measures that are no more likely to work than their previous failed ‘smash the gangs’ gimmick.”
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