Human trafficking gangs will 'rub their hands with glee' if Labor wins election, Home Secretary James Cleverly warns

Drug gangs will “rub their hands with joy” if Labor wins the election, the Home Secretary warned last night.

James Cleverly made the remarks after it emerged that almost 900 migrants had reached Britain in a single day earlier this week.

The Home Office confirmed there were 882 small boat arrivals on Tuesday, the highest number in more than 18 months.

Mr Cleverly said: “Smugglers are vile and criminal, but they are not stupid.

“They are marketing their criminal services through social media and are changing tactics in response to the actions of the UK government.”

“A Labor government led by a man historically weak on immigration and the abandonment of the Rwanda project will be used as selling points around the world.

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“Labour’s immigration plan is just a renaming of existing Home Office teams and the removal of our main deterrent.

“The smugglers will be rubbing their hands with joy if Labor wins this election.”

Conservatives have pledged to continue mandatory deportations of “irregular” migrants to Rwanda if they retain power in a general election.

In contrast, Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer said his party would immediately cancel the Rwanda deal.

Labor says it will instead seek to strike a new returns deal with France – which has already been repeatedly rejected by President Emmanuel Macron's administration – and create a strengthened border security command.

Tuesday's arrivals – including children – come after four days without crossings due to wind in the Channel.

It beat this year's previous daily record by more than 180 and brought the total number of arrivals so far this year to 12,313, up 17 percent from the same point last year.

This is the highest daily count since 947 people reached British soil on November 29, 2022.

Stephen Kinnock, Labour's shadow immigration minister, said: “Far from stopping the boats, Rishi Sunak is presiding over the worst year our country has ever seen for Channel crossings.

“While he has focused all his efforts on sending 300 migrants to Rwanda, or 40 times the number of people who have already crossed the Channel this year, the trafficking gangs have become increasingly rich and the sums government spending on hotels for asylum seekers remains stuck at £8 million a day.

He added: “Labour has a comprehensive plan to root out gangs and end the use of hotels, with hundreds of specialist investigators using counter-terrorism powers under a new Border Security Command and the creation of a new return and enforcement unit to deport. people from Britain who have no right to be here.

Earlier this week it emerged that a second rejected asylum seeker had been sent to Rwanda voluntarily.

The anonymous migrant received around £3,000 of UK taxpayers' money in exchange for agreeing to travel to Kigali.

Ministers unveiled the voluntary scheme in March as a complement to the mandatory distancing scheme.

Under the voluntary program, anyone agreeing to be sent to Rwanda will benefit from the same conditions as under the mandatory measures, including up to five years of accommodation, vocational training, health care and other supports.

Ministers believe the prospect of being deported to Rwanda will deter migrants from crossing the border from northern France in the first place.

The highest ever daily number of small craft arrivals is 1,305 on September 3, 2022.