.png)
3 hours ago
1
Progressive MPs and NGOs supporting refugee and migrant rights have criticised the government’s public display of arrests and deportations of putatively undocumented migrant workers, among whom may be victims of trafficking. Enver Solomon (Lights, camera, and a new low: why is the government making Deportation TV, 10 February) and John Harris (Starmer’s dislike of real politics is plain to see. It’s why his government has no direction, 9 February) rightly suggest that this performative attempt to take the wind from Reform’s sails will not only fail but also foster racism and xenophobia.
In my article in the RTE/Espol journal’s special edition on migration in 2022, I argued that Theresa May’s support for the Modern Slavery Act and the 2014 protocol to the International Labour Organization’s forced labour convention (no 29) had been linked to their weaponisation by anti-migration populism.
Despite its legal obligations and a glaring inherent contradiction concerning these recent raids, the Starmer government appears intent on continuing that populist discourse.
The ILO protocol requires victims of trafficking, even if they have been forced to perform illegal acts in their work, to be protected and compensated, not victimised further. Yvette Cooper can’t have it both ways: the government can’t justify the raids on the grounds that many of these workers are trafficked by criminal gangs and then violate their legal rights and dignity by parading them on television.
Most people still arriving on small boats are seeking asylum from persecution and conflict. If the government really believes that trafficking by criminal gangs is the principal problem, it can remove the demand that fuels their existence by regularising Britain’s informal economy; by enforcement against unscrupulous employers who abuse workers, whether documented or undocumented; and by reopening routes for safe passage in compliance with its obligations under the 1951 UN refugee convention.
Simon Steyne
Former senior adviser on fundamental rights at work, International Labour Organization
The threat from Reform UK is based on the fact that a significant proportion of the electorate is disappointed with the poor state of public services and its lack of spending power, and that Reform gives it a group to blame and a simple solution (Group of Labour MPs urge No 10 to be tougher on migration to fend off Reform, 4 February). Tory governments since 2010 successfully placed the blame for the nation’s ills on EU membership, resulting in the referendum vote. That gave them repeated electoral success. Recent polls show that the majority now realise that leaving the EU was a mistake.
The Labour government implicitly accepts Reform’s false allocation of blame on immigration for the nation’s ills and is trying to show that it will solve our problems by reducing the number of immigrants. This tells voters that Labour accepts Reform is correct.
The government must refute Reform and Tory arguments, explain the real causes of low pay, housing shortages, poor NHS performance etc, and show that it has a sensible plan to address them. As long as it communicates to the electorate that its opponents are correct about the EU and immigration, it will convince voters that the Tories and Reform understand the nation’s problems while Labour does not.
Gareth Jones
Littlehampton, West Sussex
