dpa
London
Nail bars and car washes will be targeted by immigration officers as they step up enforcement action over the summer, the British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced.
Writing in The Sun on Sunday, Yvette Cooper said 1,000 civil servants had been redeployed from working on the now-abandoned Rwanda scheme to staffing a new "returns and enforcement programme.”
The new programme is intended to "increase returns of those with no right to be [in the UK] and to make sure rules are respected and enforced” and will see raids on businesses suspected of employing illegal workers ramped up.
Cooper added: "We have directed Immigration Enforcement to intensify their operations over the summer, with a focus on employers who are fuelling the trade of criminal gangs by exploiting and facilitating illegal working here in the UK - including in car washes and in the beauty sector.
"And we are drawing up new plans for fast-track decisions and returns for safe countries.” Labour has made border security one of its top priorities in government and has already taken steps to establish the Border Security Command promised in its manifesto.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also used this week’s European Political Community summit to discuss migration with fellow European leaders, and signalled he would be open to considering offshore processing arrangements similar to that between Italy and Albania.
But he has been criticized by Conservatives for scrapping the Rwanda scheme on his first day in office, with opponents arguing it provided a necessary deterrent to those seeking to make the crossing.