KEIR STARMER’S Labour government is on a mission to be the most anti-migrant government we have ever seen, and it’s not far off achieving it within its first year in office.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen the true face of our new government when it comes to immigration. While many of us didn’t think it could get worse after years of Conservative governments, Labour seems keen to prove its xenophobia is right up there with the worst of them.

The new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill has been celebrated by some because it repeals in full the Safety of Rwanda Act, and revokes a large amount of the draconian Illegal Migration Act. But this new law holds on to multiple cruel measures, including increased detention powers and reduced protections for survivors of modern slavery. It also removes the ability to claim asylum from specific countries, which will put people fleeing persecution for being LGBTQIA+ at particular risk. And, in keeping with the last government, this law continues the dangerous rhetoric that people searching for safety in this country are criminals.

We know from our work and the clients we support that people seeking refuge come from all walks of life in search of one basic thing — safety. Yet politicians who claim to represent the vulnerable are coming out with rhetoric which is virtually indistinguishable from the far right. Worse still, our Prime Minister, a human rights lawyer, is overseeing some of the most regressive, anti-free speech and anti-migrant policies in British history, so intent is he on beating Reform at their own game.

Over the last week, news broke that there have been a record number of deaths in Home Office care. Under Labour’s leadership in 2024, 51 people lost their lives in government accommodation, a twelvefold rise since 2019. Our Prime Minister and Home Secretary have blood on their hands. Instead of showing remorse or regret for those who died under the governments watch, Labour celebrated achieving the most amount of removals in five years, followed by rebranding their anti-migrant social media posts in Reform UK’s colours. 

The government claim to have removed 16,400 people since being elected. Let us stop and think about what this really means, these are 16,400 people with stories and families. Announcing their removal as a celebration undermines the devastation and pain of removals, not to mention that the faster people are removed from this country, the higher probability that there is for wrongful removals, as we saw most infamously with the Windrush scandal.

Take our client Pal, who spent years in limbo and who attempted suicide after the Rwanda Act put him at risk of removal. Or Katrina, who was trafficked to Britain and experienced devastating abuse. Under previous laws and with our help, she now has a family and a home. If Labour’s new laws had come in when she was going through the system, she would most likely be accused of trying to exploit a “modern slavery loophole” by allowing herself to be trafficked. Or take Rouhi, who arrived here by small boat after suffering extreme trauma in Syria. He came here because he had family in Britain, but under our laws, this makes him a criminal. These are the stories we hear every day, and these are the stories of the 16,400 people this government is so proud to send back. 

This government’s direction of travel is clear, they are moving further to the right and don’t care who gets in their way — or worse — who dies in the process. For those of us who have held our breath hoping for a more compassionate government, the disappointment is bitter. Even Starmer, when in opposition, appeared to have at least a little more compassion than now. Some will say, power corrupts.

A government that doesn’t show loyalty to its own principles that got them into office has even less chance of showing loyalty to people seeking safety on its shores.

If Starmer truly believes he is a champion of human rights he should take deep shame in criminalising and retraumatising people who have already suffered trauma that led them here. But as things stand, Labour are on a path to ruin. In their insistence on “stopping the boats,” it is their ship that will go down. Not only will there be more deaths on their watch, but they will lose those who still held some hope for the integrity of the party.

Instead of desperately — and embarrassingly — trying to appease Reform supporters and the likes of Donald Trump, Labour needs to be honest about the real issues which face us all today. We need to fix our NHS, our schools and our housing and the answer to that lies in taxing the rich, not forcing the poorest and more vulnerable to choose between death in their home countries, death in the Channel or death at the hands of our inhumane Home Office.

Ravishaan Rahel Muthiah is head of comms at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.