UK’s new Home Secretary sets out harder line on migration

London: Britain’s newly-appointed Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on Monday set out a harder line on immigration as she warned of visa suspensions for countries that refused to “play ball” and take back illegal migrants.

In one of her major engagements since taking charge at the Home Office last week, the Pakistani-origin minister hosted ministerial counterparts from the US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada at a meeting of the intelligence-sharing group named “Five Eyes” in London.

They are said to have jointly agreed to establish clear obligations for countries to accept the return of individuals who have no legal right to remain, aiming to build international consensus and accelerate the removal process.  “If you have no legal right to remain in the UK, we will deport you. If countries refuse to take their citizens back, we will take action,” Mahmood said in a statement issued by the Home Office following the meeting.

It goes on to highlight that in cases where “non-cooperative countries” are unwilling to accept the enforced repatriation of their own nationals, this could lead to measures such as “appropriate adjustments to visa arrangements” to reflect changes in immigration risk.

The Home Office said the Five Eyes joint statement takes immediate effect and reinforces the British government’s commitment to strengthening the returns process or deportations as part of wider efforts to curb illegal migration.

It followed a weekend when over 1,000 migrants arrived illegally on UK shores via small boats, among the highest numbers making the dangerous journey across the English Channel.

“For countries that do not play ball, we have been talking about taking much more coordinated action between the Five Eyes countries,” said Mahmood.

“And for us that means the possibility of cutting visas in the future, just to say we do expect countries to play ball, play by the rules and if one of your citizens has no right to be in our country, you have to take them back,” she said.

The minister, who was promoted to her new role from the Ministry of Justice in a Cabinet reshuffle by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer last Friday, said she sees her top priority in the new job as securing the country’s borders.