Keir Starmer’s ‘left-wing’ Labour Party government said on Thursday 25 July it had deported 46 people to Vietnam and East Timor, after ditching the previous Conservative Party administration’s plan to send migrants to Rwanda. As people pointed out on X, the underhandedness and hypocrisy of these Labour deportation flights was clear to see.
Labour: we won’t deport you to Rwanda – but Vietnam is nice this time of year
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper this week said flights initially intended to fly undocumented migrants to the east African nation would instead be used to deport foreign criminals and immigration offenders.
The chartered return flight, which took off on Wednesday and arrived on Thursday, is the first ever to East Timor and the first to Vietnam since 2022, her department said.
“Today’s flight shows the government is taking quick and decisive action to secure our borders and return those with no right to be here,” added Cooper.
Labour has scrapped the Tories’ Rwanda plan. The UK Supreme Court had deemed it illegal under international law. Not that this stopped the Tories – who just changed the law. Nor was it the reason Labour has stopped it.
Cooper this week called the Rwanda scheme, intended to deter migrants making the Channel crossing in small boats from northern France, “the most shocking waste of taxpayers’ money” she had seen. Of course, she failed to mention its illegality and inhumanity.
The Tories had spent £700 million on the scheme but only four migrants had relocated to Rwanda – and they went voluntarily.
She also told parliament Sunak’s government planned to spend more than £10 billion on the scheme in total.
Short shrift to Cooper
However, people gave the news of Labour’s deportations a turning over on X.
One user pointed out that this was hardly a win:
Rwanda scrapped & Bibby Stockholm to close – great news! But really it’s the bare minimum.
At the same time as announcing these wins, the government has launched more immigration raids & a deportation flight to Vietnam.
Undoing the Tories hateful policies is only half the job. https://t.co/OId0OtAiZd
— Rav (@RavSRM) July 23, 2024
Someone though Cooper and her cronies could do with a trip themselves to Vietnam:
https://twitter.com/TsukiNoHanran/status/1815913476931608872
And, ultimately as one person noted:
Deportation flights to Vietnam instead of Rwanda ✅
Keeping the Tory 2-child benefit cap ✅
Refusing to make a statement about he ICJ ruling ✅We have a Tory Government. https://t.co/TktM75KrLr
— Hon. PolProf of Agile Ceremonies (@CeilNoyle) July 23, 2024
Labour’s approach is to prioritise returns of failed asylum seekers to designated safe countries. This is, it claims, to ease a huge backlog in the claims system – and NOT to pander to right-wing racists, obviously.
It also wants closer cooperation with Europe to “smash” the people-smuggling gangs behind the Channel crossings. So far this year nearly 16,000 people have come ashore. Of course, Labour couldn’t possibly make safe and legal routes for migrants, could it?
Vietnamese nationals accounted for 20% of undocumented migrants between January and March this year, Oxford University’s Migration Observatory said.
In March this year, Sunak’s government launched a global social media campaign. It was aimed at Vietnam in particular, to deter people from using the route.
On Wednesday 24 July, a gang of British people-smugglers were jailed. It was after they tried to hide two Vietnamese migrants in a hidden compartment of their campervan. This was as they travelled between France and the UK.
Eleven people have been convicted in the UK in connection with the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants who were found in the back of a lorry in 2019 after being smuggled from northern Europe.
Nothing left wing about Labour deportation flights
However, as the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants said:
Home Office plans to remove dozens of people to Vietnam today, on a plane originally scheduled for Rwanda.
This isn't change – it's the same old policy of forcing people out of communities, where they belong.
The govt must change course immediately – the time to resist is now!👇— JCWI (@JCWI_UK) July 24, 2024
There’s nothing left wing about ripping people out of a country they now call home. Nor is there anything left wing about stopping people moving to this country for a better life – while allowing your own population to migrate to places like Spain along with your pubs, cafes, and fat, white, tattooed, balding men.
Shame on Labour and its supporters.
Featured image via the Canary
Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse
