Tories ‘deflecting from personal failures’ with assault on ‘Labour-linked’ immigration legal professionals

Aug 08, 2023 at 11:31 AM

Accusations that “Labour-linked” charities and legal professionals are blocking efforts to maneuver asylum seekers out of accommodations are “nothing short of risible”, a shadow frontbencher stated.

Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh has hit out on the authorities’s “desperate” line of defence after it emerged 20 people did not board the Bibby Stockholm barge on Monday.

While 15 asylum seekers did move onto the vessel – one of many Home Office’s new types of lodging to cut back reliance on costly accommodations – the Care4Calais group stated different transfers had been “cancelled” as a result of authorized challenges.

Politics hub: Migrant barge described as ‘floating example of catastrophic failure’

In response, a authorities supply briefed newspapers that “Labour-linked charities and lawyers are repeatedly trying to stop us from moving illegal migrants out of expensive hotels”.

They added that Labour “need to quit trying to sabotage our plans to stop the boats” and “back the barge”.

Ms Haigh informed Sky News she doesn’t know what hyperlink legal professionals or charities which are engaged on this subject must the Labour celebration.

“I think it really is a desperate attempt to deflect from their own failures,” she stated.

“The idea that the official opposition that’s not been in government for more than 13 years is responsible for the crisis that has been created in the asylum system by the Conservatives’ failure to tackle it is nothing short of risible.”

Labour has argued the federal government needs to be specializing in bringing down the asylum seeker backlog slightly than discovering new types of lodging for them.

The authorities has stated accommodations housing individuals ready for his or her claims to be processed are costing £6m a day and shifting individuals into barges, alongside disused military sites, will probably be cheaper.

However, Ms Haigh stated the Bibby Stockholm is getting used “in addition to the enormous hotel bill” and known as it a “floating symbol of catastrophic failure”.

She stated the backlog for asylum purposes is over 170,000 and “that’s ten times more than when Labour left government”.

She claimed that the Home Office is processing 9,000 fewer asylum circumstances a 12 months than they had been in 2015 and 40,000 asylum seekers are awaiting deportation after selections have been made “so to blame anyone else for their failure is completely and utterly ludicrous”.

Ms Haigh stated a Labour authorities would fast-track asylum seeker purposes from secure nations to cut back the backlog, and cease small boat journeys by scrapping the “failed” Rwanda deportation scheme and utilizing the cash to arrange a cross-border police unit to sort out individuals smuggling.

“We want to move away from any use of hotels or barges or any other kind of accommodation. We want to bring that backlog down.

“The Conservatives, as an alternative are pursuing these madcap schemes and headline-grabbing moments, slightly than tackling a severe plan to cope with the disaster.”

Earlier, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk insisted using barges is simply “part of the solution” and the federal government is contemplating “other budget accommodation”.

The vessel solely has the capability to accommodate 500 asylum seekers – lower than 1% of these ready for his or her claims to be processed.

It has been reported that the federal government is contemplating reviving plans to fly individuals who arrive by unauthorised means 4,000 miles to Ascension Island, within the South Atlantic ocean, as a Rwanda “plan B”.

Mr Chalk informed Sky News: “It’s not purely about barges…a huge amount of work is taking place to see what other alternative cheaper, more cost-efficient and frankly more proportioned accommodation is available.

“We can’t have in perpetuity individuals staying in four-star lodging.”