One of the first things that Keir Stamer did on entering Number 10 was something that I actually applauded – scrapping the Rwanda plan.
That decision was a welcome break from the Conservatives’ inhumane immigration policies.
The Rwanda scheme was, to me, an incredibly expensive way to be cruel, and a new low for the Conservatives’ ‘hostile environment’.
But with Keir Starmer’s international trip to meet Italy’s far-right Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, it seems the new PM may still be focused on deterrence and punishment instead of the safe and legal routes that could end the ongoing tragedy of people crossing the Channel in small boats.
I don’t use that description of the Italian government lightly.
The Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been described by many as leading Italy’s most right wing government since Mussolini in WWII.
Meloni has been a member of many fascistic political organisations including the youth wing of the ‘Italian Social Movement’, a successor party to Mussolini’s war time groupings.
Her hardline rhetoric on immigration would make Nigel Farage blush.
She even went as far as calling for the Italian navy to implement a naval blockade against north Africa, and ridiculed those who pointed out that this would be an act of war.
Is this really who we want to ‘learn’ from?
Of course it’s right for our government to engage in constructive diplomacy with other nations, but no British Prime Minister, from any party, should be seeking advice or ideas from far-right leaders.
Starmer was apparently on a fact finding visit, learning about the Italian PM’s approach to migration. Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said that the government is interested in Italy’s asylum deal with neighbouring Albania.
But in short, Italy’s Albania deal is a rehashed Rwanda scheme, costing hundreds of millions of euros to scare off desperate people seeking safety.
Up to 36,000 asylum seekers a year will be deported from Italy to Albania, where asylum seekers will be detained at an air base while their claims are processed.
As with the UK’s Rwanda scheme, the idea behind the policy seems to be that it will deter asylum seekers because they will worry about being dumped in a poor country with little hope.
Given the strong opposition to the Rwanda scheme from across civil society in the UK, Starmer can be certain that any approach modelled on similar principles, and that seeks to threaten people when they are at their most vulnerable, will be robustly challenged – and Green MPs will be at the forefront of that opposition.
There seem to be a number of key differences between the Albania scheme and the Rwanda one.
One major one is that asylum seekers sent to Albania will be protected by the European Convention on Human Rights.
But the fundamental cruelty of the Rwanda scheme remains inherent in the Albania policy: that asylum seekers will be scared out of making the journey, rather than provided with safe and legal routes by which to apply for asylum.
When Prime Minister Starmer announced he was scrapping the Rwanda scheme, his main reason was it was a ‘gimmick that [didn’t] act as a deterrent’ as it would only deport ‘less than 1% of small boat arrivals’.
It was always notable that Labour’s criticisms of Rwanda were on effectiveness and cost grounds, rather than humanity and what is right.
But a cruel policy that is compliant with fiscal rules and human rights is still a cruel policy.
And Starmer’s decision to date suggests he hasn’t yet found the courage to make a break with the previous government’s ‘tough on immigration’ stance.
The new Labour government has already promised thousands more deportations, which makes the PM’s visit to consult with Meloni an even greater cause for concern.
There must be no return to the Conservative approach of outsourcing and offshoring our international, and moral, obligations to refugees and asylum seekers.
Our Green MPs in Parliament will continue making the case, as Caroline Lucas did before us, that the Government must stop this performative cruelty and focus on providing safe and legal routes for all those asylum seekers desperate for safety.
This, and not taking lessons from far-right governments, is the only humane and workable way to put the human traffickers out of business and end the constant, devastating loss of life in the Channel.
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