CAMPAIGNERS called on Labour today to resist delivering a watered-down version of the Tories’ migration policies after newly released archives revealed that Tony Blair considered sending asylum-seekers to a camp on Scotland’s Isle of Mull.
According to the papers, a 2003 report by the former Labour prime minister’s chief of staff Jonathan Powell — drawn up just months before the invasion of Iraq — said the scheme also suggested sending refugees to countries such as Turkey and South Africa.
The report questioned Britain’s need to accommodate asylum-seekers, saying: “Ideally we should not have an asylum hearing at all, simply a decision by an immigration officer to return someone followed by a one-tier fast appeal against that decision if that is necessary.”
Mr Powell said that officials from then attorney general Lord Goldsmith’s office had suggested setting up a camp on the Isle of Mull where people could be detained until they could be removed.
Although the idea was never implemented, it foreshadowed plans by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda as part of his pledge to “stop the boats.”
On Monday, the Times newspaper reported that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is considering an alternative offshoring scheme that would also block migrants from being granted asylum.
Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf called Mr Blair’s plan “very disparaging to Scotland” and accused Sir Keir of failing to deliver a “wholesale rejection” of Mr Sunak’s Rwanda plans.
Care4Calais chief executive officer Steve Smith voiced disappointment that political leaders “are still engaged in ridiculous gimmicks, rather than the serious politics of repairing Britain’s broken asylum system.”
“If the Tories and Labour are engaged in a proxy war against refugees, then the UK having a fair, compassionate and effective asylum system is a far-off dream as we head towards a general election,” he said.
Stand Up to Racism co-convener Sabby Dhalu said the Blair report came as “no surprise,” adding: “An incoming Labour government must not follow this trajectory.
“We need a Labour government that will put human rights, safe routes for those crossing the Channel and the right to work at the heart of asylum policy, not simply water down Tory policy.”
Humans for Rights Network founder Maddie Harris said: “What we don’t want to happen, should Labour win the next election, is that they just build on top of the layers and layers of hostility that already exist.”
Julia Tinsley-Kent of the Migrants Rights Network hit out at Labour for “echoing the divisive rhetoric of the government” and said the party had “failed every time” to reject the Tories’ “morally wrong” migration policies.
