Under the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, the home office has released footage of deportations of illegal migrants. The videos capture the arrests of migrants in raids and being escorted onto planes out of Britain. However, Yvette Cooper has defended this decision, asserting that “the immigration rules must be respected and enforced.”
Nearly 19,000 illegal migrants have been deported to areas in South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia on both commercial and charter flights.
The government crackdown to reduce unsustainable immigration levels has seen an increase in the removal of migrants by nearly 25 per cent between 5 July 2024 and 31 January 2025. Additionally, raids on businesses suspected of hiring foreign workers are up by 38 per cent.
The Labour government has faced a barrage of criticism from outside and inside the party, causing internal party divisions down ideological lines. From the right of the party, Johnathan Hinder, MP of Pendle and Clitheroe supports the action taken, affirming that “if people haven’t got a right to be in the country then they are being removed.”
However, left-leaning Labour politicians have condemned the party’s approach to tackling immigration. Diane Abbott said that the Labour government “feel they have to echo the reform narrative.”
Abbott also said that the growing political threat from Reform prompted Labour to ape the party’s tough immigration stance to demonstrate to the British people that action is being taken to reduce immigration levels.
There are rising concerns over the inhumane and invasive nature of these videos. The director of Detention Action, James Wilson, denounced the footage, deeming it “an act of performative cruelty” that incentivises racism.
Students at the University of Edinburgh stated that such content “should not be in public view” and it feels as if “people are being paraded on a media stage.”
This is a developing story.
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