Labour Campaign for Free Movement called Yvette Cooper's announcement 'disgraceful'
Labour Party members are set to stage a protest outside their own party’s conference in September over the government’s plans to increase the deportation and detention of migrants.
The protest, coordinated by Labour Campaign for Free Movement, was announced after the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper confirmed that the government will re-open two closed immigration detention centres and seek to deport 14,000 additional people by the end of the year. Cooper said that the plans were designed to tackle ‘the chaos that has blighted the system for far too long’.
The Labour Campaign for Free Movement protest will take place on Sunday 22 September at 1pm.
Speaking on the decision to hold the protest, Sacha Marten, a spokesperson for the Labour Campaign for Free Movement, said: “Yvette Cooper’s call to lock up and deport more migrants is a disgraceful and cruel way to approach the issue of border policy.
“This is a sop to the far right. Just weeks after the far right ran riot around Britain’s towns and cities, targeting mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers, a Labour government is giving them what they want – crueller, nastier measures aimed at migrants.
“It’s Tory austerity and big business who have driven down wages, wrecked communities and driven our public services into the ground – not migrants. Labour must tell the truth and offer hope, not pander to lies and hatred.
“We hope that all Labour members able to do so will join our protest outside Labour conference on Sunday 22nd September at 1pm.”
The Labour Campaign for Free Movement describes itself as “a network of Labour members and supporters, campaigning in Labour and the trade union movement to defend and extend free movement and migrants’ rights.” The group says that “free movement is a workers’ right” and that “attacks on the rights and freedoms of migrants don’t protect British workers – they undermine all of us”.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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