Labour's raids on illegal migrant workers no cause for celebration: 'An utterly pointless performance'

Campaigners have called for safer asylum processes after it was reported that the number of migrant arrests last month was the highest figure for any January on record.

According to the Home Office, hundreds of migrants have been arrested since the start of this year as part of a “crackdown” on illegal working in the UK.

The Home Office reported that throughout January, immigration enforcement teams “descended on 828 premises, including nail bars, convenience stores, restaurants and car washes”, in a 48% rise compared to the previous January.

Arrests last month totalled 609, a 73% increase from the previous year. 

From the start of the Labour government in July up to 31 January, 3,930 arrests were made over 5,424 visits by immigration enforcement officers. A total of 1,090 civil penalty notices were also issued, with employers facing a fine of up to £60,000 per worker if found liable.

“The immigration rules must be respected and enforced. For far too long, employers have been able to take on and exploit illegal migrants and too many people have been able to arrive and work illegally with no enforcement action ever taken,” home secretary Yvette Cooper said on Monday (10 February), announcing the figures.

“Not only does this create a dangerous draw for people to risk their lives by crossing the Channel in a small boat, but it results in the abuse of vulnerable people, the immigration system and our economy.”  

She continued: “That’s why, as part of our Plan for Change, we are boosting enforcement to record levels alongside tough new legislation to smash the criminal gangs that undermine our border security and who have been getting away with it for far too long.”

Last month marked the most successful January in over half a decade for illegal working operations – preventing the exploitation of vulnerable people, the immigration system and our economy.

False promises of illegal working are never worth the cost to human lives.

— Home Office (@ukhomeoffice) February 10, 2025

Campaigners explained that the number of migrant arrests is no cause for celebration, however, with a “crackdown” on immigration putting “more migrants, particularly those who have been trafficked, in more vulnerable positions”.

“The increase in detention of migrants shows a disturbing continuation of previous ‘hostile environment’ policies, with very little engagement in the reality of why and how people become undocumented, or the obstacles which they face in getting a regularised status,” Daniel Sohege, director of human rights organisation Stand For All, told the Big Issue. 

“Inevitably these detentions mean that people who are trying to build lives are put under yet more fear, all the while those who take advantage of them get away with a slap on the wrist, at best,” they said. 

“This crackdown inevitably puts more migrants, particularly those who have been trafficked, in more vulnerable positions. It means that they are unable to seek protections from the state, unable to say that they are being exploited – and many are forced ‘underground’, which puts them in even more risk of exploitation.

“Immigration raids have very little real world impact on those who exploit undocumented migrants. Instead they target the victims of that exploitation.”

Sohege commented on the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which had its second reading in parliament on Monday (10 February), adding that it is “unlikely to do anything other than make the situation worse for people seeking asylum, while failing to combat the gangs themselves, whether traffickers or smugglers.”

“When policies do not look at the actual reasons people use gangs, or end up undocumented, they inevitably end up just leading to more people suffering, and the gangs being strengthened,” they said.

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Louise Calvey, executive director of Asylum Matters, told the Big Issue that the “vast majority of people forced to migrate by small boat are overwhelmingly refugees”, with “94% of people arriving by small boat since 2018 recorded as entering the asylum system” according to the government’s data.

“The people entering via irregular migration routes have endured months of arduous and extremely dangerous travel,” Calvey explained.

“Hearing experiences of arrest, imprisonment and torture are all too devastatingly common in our work. The idea that a person would endure all of this just to work for a pittance in a nail bar or car wash out of choice would be laughable if it wasn’t coming from a government entrusted with their care.”

She explained that removals of migrants are a “horribly violent act”, which she states “research demonstrates is hugely damaging for people, adds to cycles of further remigration and costs us a fortune as a country. There are much more respectful and cheaper approaches that have been evidenced to be more effective.”

Calvey stated that the government should “step back, look at the data, listen to people who are forced to live this life and create safer options for them”.

“If you want to stop irregular migration, open safe routes. If you want to stop exploitative working, give people working rights and stop forcing them to survive on £8.86 a week. Instead they’re picking up horrible dog whistles from the previous government, and maintaining their ban on irregular migrants who’ve been criminally exploited from accessing slavery and trafficking support,” she said.

Migration policy expert Zoe Gardner added: “The 600 people arrested in January will simply be replaced by another 600 people made undocumented in February by our broken immigration system. It is an utterly pointless performance.”

Gardner explained that the “entire immigration system needs an overhaul”, adding that the proposed Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill is a “desperate distraction and will not stop the boats”.

“We need to be realistic and develop an immigration system that meets our country’s needs while protecting the people who need our country’s safety. Stop chasing headlines for cruelty and use the evidence to build systems that work,” she said.

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