Yvette Cooper’s praise for Italy’s deportation scheme will fuel far right
Keir Starmer previously said Labour is ‘very interested’ in Italy’s racist deportations scheme
Yvette Cooper and Keir Starmer at the National Crime Agency looking to clamp down on refugees (Pictures: Flickr/Number 10)
Keir Starmer previously said Labour is ‘very interested’ in Italy’s racist deportations scheme
Yvette Cooper and Keir Starmer at the National Crime Agency looking to clamp down on refugees (Pictures: Flickr/Number 10)
By Tomáš Tengely-Evans
Friday 22 November 2024
Friday 22 November 2024
SOCIALIST WORKER Issue
Labour home secretary Yvette Cooper has praised a deportation scheme pushed by Italy’s fascist prime minister Giorgia Meloni.
She claimed on Friday it was “very different from the really chaotic Rwanda scheme” pushed by the Tory government.
Italy’s scheme holds refugees who are deemed to come from a “safe country” in Albania to process their claims. The fascist-led government has expanded the list of “safe countries” from 15 to 21—it now includes the brutal dictatorship in Egypt.
The first deportations took place last month. Refugees picked up by the Italian coast guard were shipped to the island of Lampedusa.
Here, Italian authorities “screened” them and singled out men from “safe countries” to deport to Albania. And once in Albania, the refugees were taken to a former air force base in Gjader.
Human rights groups slammed the deal as a breach of international law, but the European Union and a host of mainstream politicians have tacitly backed it.
Cooper said Labour wanted to fast-track deportations of “people who are arriving from predominantly safe countries”. “What Italy is looking at with Albania is being able to take those fast-track decisions,” she said.
“It is just for predominantly safe countries, so this is very different from the really chaotic Rwanda scheme.
“The previous government spent £700 million in the two and a half years it was running in order to send four volunteers to Rwanda.”
Weyman Bennett, Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) co-convenor, slammed mainstream politicians for fuelling the rise of the far right. “The Italian scheme is driven by racism and division and no politician should have anything to do with it,” he told Socialist Worker.
“There are 300 new Reform UK branches being formed and they are not just targeting just Conservative seats.
“The beneficiaries of this rhetoric will be the right and Reform UK.”
Weyman said Labour’s talk of “stopping the boats” ignores what forces people to cross the English Channel. “What’s driving people is bombs, bullets and pestilence—and there is no attempt to deal with those things,” he said. “The solution is safe and legal routes, not scapegoating.”
Many anti-racists were hopeful when the new Labour government scrapped the Rwanda deportations scheme and shut the Bibby Stockholm prison barge in Dorset. That was due to pressure from anti-racist campaigners—and, in the case of the barge, protests by refugees themselves.
But Labour said its move was on the basis of “efficiency”—and paints immigration as a problem to be managed.
Starmer is ‘very interested’ in Giorgia Meloni’s racist immigration scheme
Read More
Cooper has promised to deport 14,000 migrants by the end of the year. And she says that Labour wants to “smash the criminal gangs” that traffic some people across the English Channel.
But the people-smugglers only exist because of Britain’s and the European Union’s racist border rules. If refugees had safe and legal routes to Britain and Europe, they wouldn’t be forced into the hands of organised criminals.
Every time politicians have ramped up border security, it has only forced people seeking a new life to use deadlier means. And every time refugees drown or freeze in the back of a lorry as a result, politicians respond with calls for a tougher security—which only ensures yet more deaths.
More than half of those travelling by small boats come from war-torn and dangerous countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Eritrea, Syria, Iraq and Sudan.
Labour promised “change” to millions of working class people who’d suffered under 14 years of Tory austerity and racism.
Instead, Starmer’s ministers praise a fascist government in Italy for making the deportation flights run on time.
Labour’s scapegoating will only fuel the likes of Nigel Farage, Reform UK and the far right. Anti-racists have to keep demanding safe and legal routes—and an end to scapegoating of refugees and migrants—under Labour.Support Stand Up To Racism
Labour home secretary Yvette Cooper has praised a deportation scheme pushed by Italy’s fascist prime minister Giorgia Meloni.
She claimed on Friday it was “very different from the really chaotic Rwanda scheme” pushed by the Tory government.
Italy’s scheme holds refugees who are deemed to come from a “safe country” in Albania to process their claims. The fascist-led government has expanded the list of “safe countries” from 15 to 21—it now includes the brutal dictatorship in Egypt.
The first deportations took place last month. Refugees picked up by the Italian coast guard were shipped to the island of Lampedusa.
Here, Italian authorities “screened” them and singled out men from “safe countries” to deport to Albania. And once in Albania, the refugees were taken to a former air force base in Gjader.
Human rights groups slammed the deal as a breach of international law, but the European Union and a host of mainstream politicians have tacitly backed it.
Cooper said Labour wanted to fast-track deportations of “people who are arriving from predominantly safe countries”. “What Italy is looking at with Albania is being able to take those fast-track decisions,” she said.
“It is just for predominantly safe countries, so this is very different from the really chaotic Rwanda scheme.
“The previous government spent £700 million in the two and a half years it was running in order to send four volunteers to Rwanda.”
Weyman Bennett, Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) co-convenor, slammed mainstream politicians for fuelling the rise of the far right. “The Italian scheme is driven by racism and division and no politician should have anything to do with it,” he told Socialist Worker.
“There are 300 new Reform UK branches being formed and they are not just targeting just Conservative seats.
“The beneficiaries of this rhetoric will be the right and Reform UK.”
Weyman said Labour’s talk of “stopping the boats” ignores what forces people to cross the English Channel. “What’s driving people is bombs, bullets and pestilence—and there is no attempt to deal with those things,” he said. “The solution is safe and legal routes, not scapegoating.”
Many anti-racists were hopeful when the new Labour government scrapped the Rwanda deportations scheme and shut the Bibby Stockholm prison barge in Dorset. That was due to pressure from anti-racist campaigners—and, in the case of the barge, protests by refugees themselves.
But Labour said its move was on the basis of “efficiency”—and paints immigration as a problem to be managed.
Starmer is ‘very interested’ in Giorgia Meloni’s racist immigration scheme
Read More
Cooper has promised to deport 14,000 migrants by the end of the year. And she says that Labour wants to “smash the criminal gangs” that traffic some people across the English Channel.
But the people-smugglers only exist because of Britain’s and the European Union’s racist border rules. If refugees had safe and legal routes to Britain and Europe, they wouldn’t be forced into the hands of organised criminals.
Every time politicians have ramped up border security, it has only forced people seeking a new life to use deadlier means. And every time refugees drown or freeze in the back of a lorry as a result, politicians respond with calls for a tougher security—which only ensures yet more deaths.
More than half of those travelling by small boats come from war-torn and dangerous countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Eritrea, Syria, Iraq and Sudan.
Labour promised “change” to millions of working class people who’d suffered under 14 years of Tory austerity and racism.
Instead, Starmer’s ministers praise a fascist government in Italy for making the deportation flights run on time.
Labour’s scapegoating will only fuel the likes of Nigel Farage, Reform UK and the far right. Anti-racists have to keep demanding safe and legal routes—and an end to scapegoating of refugees and migrants—under Labour.Support Stand Up To Racism
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