Yvette Cooper / Migrant Watch / Stopping The Boats

Primrose53

Wonder what pet name they will give Yvette? 🤔

Yes I wonder, any suggestions?

Joseann

The phones migrants are given surely can't have cameras or we would be seeing photos of the conditions in which they are kept? I assume they don't have Internet access either, just a pay as you go phone to make calls? Provided the phone isn't used for say drug trafficking or something illegal, then I can't see much wrong with their having one to contact friends and family. They're probably old reconditioned ones.

Many illegal migrants have their own phones already, they don’t need an old reconditioned one.It’s how they keep in touch with their families and friends, other migrants waiting in France and people smugglers.

It wouldn’t be very fair to expect a new government to show any results on this issue a week or a month into power, but if they don’t after a year then the public won’t be happy.

I just think that seeing as Labour and Lib/Dem voted down every effort of the previous government with regard to illegal immigration, it’s not unreasonable that in the fourteen years in opposition, Labour would have started to put together something of a plan on how they would deal with this. In particular, since fourteen years is a long time, I should have expected that to be done during the last five years. They have been fully aware of how this situation has been developing and Yvette Cooper should have been thinking and taking advice about how she may deal with it.

Oreo

It wouldn’t be very fair to expect a new government to show any results on this issue a week or a month into power, but if they don’t after a year then the public won’t be happy.

I agree.
But it’s not unreasonable to have expected them to have given this situation serious thought during the last few years. And now be able to make proper progress with it.
I suspect that what Labour may do is give a general amnesty to all the unprocessed migrants since that was Blair’s solution to the much smaller situation more than 25 years ago. I hope I’m wrong.

I don’t expect results so quickly but I do expect a credible plan to provide a deterrent.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see an amnesty maddy - a horrifying prospect. Part of their ‘plan’ is to stop the use of hotels - an amnesty would achieve that, turning all the migrants out with appalling results.

I can't find a record of Blair giving a general amnesty try as I might.

LegislationTypeYearOverview
Fairer, Faster and Firmer: A Modern Approach to Immigration and AsylumWhite Paper1998Instituted new controls but also a "covenant" with asylum seekers; emphasized "joined up" government and the need for administrative overhaul.
Human Rights ActParliamentary Act1998Incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law, giving human rights the status of "higher law."
Immigration and Asylum ActParliamentary Act1999Created a "covenant" with asylum seekers but generally restrictive; made provisions for a new welfare support system (the National Asylum Support Service).
Race Relations (Amendment) ActParliamentary Act2000Broadened antidiscrimination legislation to police and immigration service and created "positive duty" for race equality on public authorities.
Antiterrorism, Crime and Security ActParliamentary Act2001Part 4 of the act legislated that suspected terrorists who were immigrants could be interned (potentially on a permanent basis). The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) reviews decisions, but the act does not permit judicial review of the SIAC.
Secure Borders, Safe Havens: Integration with Diversity in Modern BritainWhite Paper2002Set out comprehensive reform, including the goal of "managed migration."
The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum ActParliamentary Act2002Increased restrictions on asylum (breaking the previous "covenant") and new enforcement powers, but noted support of economic migration.
Highly Skilled Migrant Program (HSMP)Change to regulations2002Created an immigration scheme based on points that aims to attract high-skilled migrants.
Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) ActParliamentary Act2004Further reduced asylum appeal rights and other restrictive measures.
Controlling our Borders: Making Migration Work for BritainFive-Year Departmental Plan2005Published three months before the 2005 election, the plan set out a strong set of measures on gaining control of borders and managing migration through a new points system.
Improving Opportunity, Strengthening Society: The Government’s Strategy to Increase Race Equality and Community CohesionPolicy Strategy2005A race-equality strategy designed to cut across government, complemented by a cross-cutting, race-equality target, and overseen by a board of senior public figures.
This is just half of his policy….

Highly Skilled Migrant Program (HSMP)Change to regulations2002Created an immigration scheme based on points that aims to attract high-skilled migrants.
Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) ActParliamentary Act2004Further reduced asylum appeal rights and other restrictive measures.
Controlling our Borders: Making Migration Work for BritainFive-Year Departmental Plan2005Published three months before the 2005 election, the plan set out a strong set of measures on gaining control of borders and managing migration through a new points system.
Improving Opportunity, Strengthening Society: The Government’s Strategy to Increase Race Equality and Community CohesionPolicy Strategy2005A race-equality strategy designed to cut across government, complemented by a cross-cutting, race-equality target, and overseen by a board of senior public figures.
Integration Matters: The National Integration Strategy for RefugeesPolicy Strategy2005Strategy meant to integrate refugees, including new "integration loans" and the piloting of a one-to-one caseworker model. Built on strategy formulated in 2000.
A Points-Based System: Making Migration Work for BritainPolicy Strategy2006Proposed a five-tier economic migration system. Tiers equate to categories: (1) high skilled, (2) skilled with job offer, (3) low skilled, (4) students, and (5) miscellaneous.
Immigration, Asylum, and Nationality (IAN) ActParliamentary Act2006Mainly focused on immigration (rather than asylum), it included restrictions on appeal rights, sanctions on employers of unauthorized labor, and a tightening of citizenship rules.
Fair, Effective, Transparent and Trusted: Rebuilding Confidence in Our Immigration SystemReform Strategy2006Created the arm's-length Border and Immigration Agency, which replaced the Immigration and Nationality Directorate on April 2, 2007.
Enforcing the Rules: A Strategy to Ensure and Enforce Compliance with Our Immigration LawsPolicy Strategy2007Called for secure border control built on biometric visas and greater checks.
UK Borders BillParliamentary Bill2007Proposes police powers for immigration officers and a requirement that foreign nationals must have a Biometric Immigration Document (BID).
Source: International Passenger Survey
This is the remaining part. I assume the policy maddyone is referring to is in there somewhere…

Can't find it. An urban myth?

BJ proposed it for London in 2008 but it wasn't taken up
www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/nov/21/boris-immigration

Wyllow3

I can't find a record of Blair giving a general amnesty try as I might.

Perhap it was this?

Barbara Roche, Junior Immigration Minister:
Blair’s only instruction to her was to deport bogus asylum seekers. But Roche wasn’t playing. In her first conversation with a senior immigration official, she was candid: ‘I think asylum seekers should be allowed to stay. Removal takes too long, and it’s emotional.’ Even the word ‘bogus,’ she maintained, created a negative feeling.
It was clear Roche wanted more immigrants to come to Britain,’ recalled Stephen Boys-Smith, the new head of the immigration directorate. ‘She didn’t see her job as controlling entry, but by looking at the wider picture “in a holistic way” she wanted us to see the benefit of a multicultural society.’
Jack Straw never openly contradicted Roche — it simply wasn’t worth the risk of alienating the Labour Party. So she set to work on a speech, in which she outlined the advantages of reducing controls to immigration and portrayed asylum seekers as skilled labour. She didn’t discuss what she was going to say with Straw.
Jack Straw never openly contradicted Roche — it simply wasn’t worth the risk of alienating the Labour Party. So she set to work on a speech, in which she outlined the advantages of reducing controls to immigration and portrayed asylum seekers as skilled labour. She didn’t discuss what she was going to say with Straw.

‘^He wasn’t interested. And nor was Blair,’ she said. ‘[Blair] didn’t understand the process and wasn’t interested in the detail . . . He was shallow. He had no grasp of immigration policy. There was no policy.’^

Blair's only instruction to his new junior immigration minister Barbara Roche was to deport bogus asylum seekers
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Blair's only instruction to his new junior immigration minister Barbara Roche was to deport bogus asylum seekers

In her speech, Roche argued for more work permits for migrants, skating over the fact that the number of permits had already risen to 40,000 — compared with 25,000 when Labour entered office.

That way, she claimed, economic migrants would no longer have to pose as asylum seekers. Roche described them as the ‘entrepreneurs, the scientists, the high-technology specialists who make the global economy tick’. She refused to be tied down on how many more would arrive as a direct result of her policy. Setting target figures, she said, would be a ‘foolish’ mistake.

Her speech was delivered despite warnings by Charlie Falconer.

Tom Bower.

Wyllow3

Can't find it. An urban myth?

BJ proposed it for London in 2008 but it wasn't taken up
www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/nov/21/boris-immigration

Thanks Wyllow. Didn’t have time to plough through it myself ( on holiday). Still, I’m sure it will be added to all of the other urban myths

Thanks Callistemon213.

So it seems as if it was discussed at different times by different people/different parties but not taken up by Blair or other leaders.

Maybe its the idea from the USA, where there are amnesties from time to time, tho iirc its for people who have worked for a number of years as "undocumented" (their term).

Wyllow3

Thanks Callistemon213.

So it seems as if it was discussed at different times by different people/different parties but not taken up by Blair or other leaders.

Maybe its the idea from the USA, where there are amnesties from time to time, tho iirc its for people who have worked for a number of years as "undocumented" (their term).

Perhaps these ideas are mooted when they just can't cope.

Barbara Roche does seem to have had some rather pie-in-the-sky ideas.

Reading some of the points made further up reminded me of the points system we faced when we were considering emigration.
Positive qualifications -skills, particularly those to fill shortages, health, age etc. Then negative points, lack of skills needed by the country in question and ill-health including problems children had which would cost the country money.
Do we have a points system like that?

She was also confusing/conflating immigration for work and migration generally.

We do have a points based system -

www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-points-based-immigration-system-employer-information/the-uks-points-based-immigration-system-an-introduction-for-employers

Sorry no energy to go into pros and cons tho its laid out quite well!

maddyone

I just think that seeing as Labour and Lib/Dem voted down every effort of the previous government with regard to illegal immigration, it’s not unreasonable that in the fourteen years in opposition, Labour would have started to put together something of a plan on how they would deal with this. In particular, since fourteen years is a long time, I should have expected that to be done during the last five years. They have been fully aware of how this situation has been developing and Yvette Cooper should have been thinking and taking advice about how she may deal with it.

Yvette Cooper did think about it and here is her decision.

Primrose53

maddyone

I just think that seeing as Labour and Lib/Dem voted down every effort of the previous government with regard to illegal immigration, it’s not unreasonable that in the fourteen years in opposition, Labour would have started to put together something of a plan on how they would deal with this. In particular, since fourteen years is a long time, I should have expected that to be done during the last five years. They have been fully aware of how this situation has been developing and Yvette Cooper should have been thinking and taking advice about how she may deal with it.

Yvette Cooper did think about it and here is her decision.

That picture has been used 2 times recently on GN before to try and make the point you do.

But I notice you don't give the date of the picture, it was 2015.

I also should point out that she wasn't saying 'all migrants welcome", she was referring to the legal right to claim asylum in the UK specifically when there were suggestions that the UK should no longer uphold this right.

This article describes the circumstances/crisis in 2015 that gave rise to her picture:

www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/14/refugee-crisis-eu-governments-set-to-back-new-internment-camps

it makes for interesting reading in the light of the Rwanda idea and previous attempts to establish similar.

NannyJan53

Freya5

All those that didn't vote Labour could see this disaster happening. Labour will do nothing to solve this problem.

So the Tory government did???

At least they were trying. Why did migrants trot over to Dublin, when Rwanda was mentioned. No the Tories didn't do enough. It'll be worse under Labour,total Amnesty anyone!!

maddyone

Oreo

It wouldn’t be very fair to expect a new government to show any results on this issue a week or a month into power, but if they don’t after a year then the public won’t be happy.

I agree.
But it’s not unreasonable to have expected them to have given this situation serious thought during the last few years. And now be able to make proper progress with it.
I suspect that what Labour may do is give a general amnesty to all the unprocessed migrants since that was Blair’s solution to the much smaller situation more than 25 years ago. I hope I’m wrong.

Absolutely-tootley
They must have had their own ideas at least during the last few years.What matters are results tho and I will be surprised not to say amazed if they manage to get on top of this problem even in a year, but will wait to see what happens.
If they got rid of the backlog by doing as you say I will be furious.

Oreo

If they got rid of the backlog by doing as you say I will be furious.

They won’t do that because . . .
using Blair’s solution would not be the action of a decent hardworking man of integrity.

You do know that two thirds of asylum claims are granted protection at the initial decision stage?
67% of initial decisions made in the year to December 2023 have been grants of protection, meaning they have been awarded refugee status or humanitarian protection.
So, by processing people in the system now, with no changes to the rules whatsoever, the same percentages are likely to apply.

100,000 destined for Rwanda have been given an amnesty