U.K. touts a clampdown on illegal working as it seeks to look tough on immigration

People thought to be migrants who undertook the crossing from France in small boats and were picked up in the Channel, arrive to be disembarked from a small transfer boat which ferried them from a larger British border force vessel that didn't come into the port, in Dover, south east England, Friday, June 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

LONDON — The British government on Monday touted its success in raiding businesses that employ unauthorized workers and deporting thousands of migrants with no right to stay in the U.K.

What’s billed as a “blitz on illegal working” is part of a pledge by the center-left Labour government to reduce immigration -– a priority for many voters -– and stop the growing popularity of the hard-right party Reform U.K.

But for migrants groups, and some Labour Party members, the images uncomfortably recall a previous Conservative government’s pledge to make Britain a “hostile environment” for illegal migration. That led to thousands of long-term legal residents being denied housing, jobs or medical treatment because they could not prove their status. Dozens were detained or deported to countries they had not visited for decades.

The government said Monday that immigration enforcement teams have carried out more than 5,000 raids since Labour was elected in July on businesses including nail bars, convenience stores, vape shops, restaurants and car washes, and made almost 4,000 arrests. The figures are significantly higher than the previous year, when the Conservatives were in power.

Britain also has deported more than 16,000 people in the same period. The government plans to release video footage of migrants being deported later Monday in a PR move that has been criticized as crass and insensitive.

Home Office Minister Angela Eagle defended the government’s tough approach.

“We have to have a system where the rules are respected and enforced,” she told the BBC. “It’s important that we show what we are doing and it’s important that we send messages to people who may have been sold lies about what will await them in the U.K. if they get themselves smuggled in.”

A new tough immigration bill likely to pass Monday

The government says the perception that it’s easy to find work in Britain is a “dangerous draw” for migrants who try to cross the English Channel on small boats. Authorities in the U.K. and France have struggled for years to stop the dangerous crossings, which brought more than 38,000 people to Britain in 2024. More than 70 people perished in the attempts.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said the crime gangs are a threat to global security and should be treated like terror networks. The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which faces a key vote in Parliament on Monday, contains new powers including the ability to seize suspected traffickers' phones before they are arrested.

It will also formally scrap the Safety of Rwanda Act, which underpinned the previous Conservative government’s contentious plan to send some asylum-seekers who reach Britain by boat on a one-way trip to Rwanda. Starmer branded the plan an expensive gimmick, and canceled it soon after taking office.

The new immigration bill is almost certain to pass because of Labour’s large majority. But some feel uneasy. Human rights group Liberty said the bill sets a “dangerous precedent” in bringing in counterterrorism-style powers for offences that are not terrorism.

The Conservatives, meanwhile, called it “a weak bill that won’t stop the boats.”

Support for anti-immigrant Reform party on the rise

Labour won a landslide election victory just seven months ago, but the government’s popularity has slumped and polls suggest a surge in support for Reform U.K., the populist anti-immigrant party led by Nigel Farage. Reform has only five seats in the 650-seat House of Commons but is vying for top spot in polls with Labour and the main opposition Conservatives, even though an election is likely four years away.

Reform’s rise has left both Labour and the Tories scrambling to respond, and is part of the reason for the government talking tough on immigration.

But Rob Ford, professor of political science at the University of Manchester, cautioned that “wooing back Reform voters with red meat on Farage’s favorite issues is a strategy with low prospects of success and high risks.”

“Labour won last summer with a ruthless focus on issues which united a broad coalition -– growth, public services and the cost of living,” he wrote in The Observer newspaper. “Focusing instead on issues which divide Labour and play to Farage’s strengths is not a great strategy.”

Jill Lawless, The Associated Press