‘Nightingale courts’ will speed up deportation of failed asylum seekers under Labour, Keir Starmer says
Labour would set up fast-track “Nightingale courts” to speed up the deportation of failed asylum seekers as part of Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to tackle the Channel crisis.
The temporary courts would be set up to try and ensure legal challenges against removal could be heard quickly in a drive to “take back control” of an asylum system beset by backlogs and delays.
Labour would also create a new Home Office returns unit with 1,000 staff to fast-track removals of failed asylum seekers, foreign national offenders and visa overstayers following what it said had been a 70 per cent “collapse” in deportations since the Conservatives took power in 2010.
It would also fast-track asylum decisions on those who arrive via small boat from safe countries, such as Albania and India, whose applications are likely to fail.
These claims will be processed in weeks with swift removals organised, the party said, while insisting it does not need a new returns agreement with India, which is accounting for an increasing proportion of Channel migrants.
Meanwhile, 1,000 new asylum case workers will be hired to clear the record backlog of claims and move migrants out of hotels where they are awaiting decisions.
They will be recruited on higher wages than current staff in an effort to improve productivity.
Once the backlogs and delays are cleared, a Labour government could end the use of hotels, barges and former military sites for asylum accommodation, which are currently costing £2bn a year.
The party is anticipating the Home Office having to make another request to the Treasury Reserve for cash, having claimed £2.4bn last year for asylum accommodation.
Labour will use £144m of this, around the same amount the Government’s stalled Rwanda deportation plan has cost to date, to pay for its plans.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Tory chaos at our borders and in the asylum system is costing taxpayers billions and must come to an end. All we have had from this Government is gimmicks not grip.
“Labour has a serious plan to end the Government’s wasteful spending on hotels and return people who have no right to be here.
“These plans will go hand in hand with our plans to stop the criminal smuggling gangs, put stronger powers in place and get a new security agreement including working with Europol so that we can tackle the problem at source.
“Labour will take back control of our asylum system.
“We know the British public want to see strong border security and a properly controlled and fair asylum system, and that’s what we’ll deliver.”
Responding to Labour’s series of announcements on the Channel crisis this week, Rishi Sunak told reporters in Devon on Thursday: “Keir Starmer spent all of this year voting against our stop the boats Bill, the toughest legislation that any government has passed to tackle illegal migration.
“I think he spent most of last year voting against a previous Bill which has since then led to almost 700 arrests related to organised immigration crime, so I don’t think it’s credible that he really wants to grip this problem.”
