Raids on nail salons, restaurants and shops: London also sees deportations of immigrants

LondonKeir Starmer's government has come to the conclusion that it must not only say what it is doing in terms of immigration, with specific data on how it combats irregular arrivals in the country, but it must also offer images to the public of the heavy-handed way it treats those who are in the country without papers.

Images that have been broadcast since Monday on television news and through social networks, and which include recordings of operations to control illegal persons, according to government terminology, and also deportations.

He premier Labour –which put an end to the previous government's plan to expel people in Rwanda– thus following in the footsteps of Donald Trump in criminalising foreigners, whether or not they are refugees. The communication strategy is intended to counter the alleged rise in popularity of the Reform Party, led by the architect of Brexit and xenophobe Nigel Farage, who last week surpassed both the Labour Party and the Conservatives in voting intention for the first time. With the horizon of local elections in May, according to the survey, the Reform Party rose to 25%, Labour obtained only 24% and the Conservatives only 25%. Tories 21%.

While the survey cannot project results for almost five years, which is what remains until the legislative elections of 2029, it has served to make both the government party and the opposition nervous. tory, who feel Farage's rhetoric as a constant threat on the back of their necks.

For several weeks now, Reform has launched a campaign through X to get more members than the Tories. And on March 28, in Birmingham, he will hold what his leader intends to make the largest rally in the country's political history, kicking off the race for local elections.

Searches and raids

Against this backdrop of populist discourse, the blaming of refugees and a highly emotional and volatile policy, the Home Office on Monday released data on the fight against undocumented immigration for the past month. During January, the various police forces in the United Kingdom responsible for ensuring the inviolability of borders have carried out more than 25 searches and raids a day in nail salons, fast food and takeaway restaurants, car washes, convenience stores, and other public places. vaping, grocery stores and other premises looking for undocumented foreign workers. The result of the operations was the arrest of 609 people, who will be deported in the coming days.

Since the Labor Party won the elections in July 3,930 arrests have been made in 5,424 immigration control interventions, according to the same sources. In addition, more than 16,400 asylum seekers, undocumented immigrants and foreign criminals have been deported since the summer, although more than half left the country voluntarily due to the lack of possibilities of legalization.

The data for this January represent an increase of 73% compared to the same month in 2024. Compared to the previous twelve months, both raids on jobs and arrests have increased by 38%.

The publication of the data coincides on Monday with the return to the House of Commons of the immigration bill, which seeks to regulate it even more harshly than under previous governments.. Yes ok after the Brexit referendum, Eight and a half years ago, immigration ceased to be an issue of concern for the British, since 2022 it has returned to occupy a preferential position. Above all, fueled by the political agenda and the demagogic and populist language of said Reform Party, which since the economic crisis of 2008 and the cuts in social services and the impact on the less favored classes that they had, continues to be a factor of distortion of the political landscape of the United Kingdom.

In an intervention before the militants, on Sunday, Farage insisted that the Conservative Party "has betrayed the country by opening the door to emigration, increasing taxes and not complying with Brexit […] Brexit was about regaining control of our borders, Brexit has been a resounding failure, because, roughly speaking, the number of legal arrivals between 2016 and 2024 has tripled and reached almost 700,000 people. As for unauthorized arrivals, through the Manga channel, last year there were just over 23,000 and this January slightly more than 1,500.