Rights groups say Starmers migration comments risk reigniting farright riots

Rights groups say Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s comments about curbing migration to the UK risk sparking a fresh wave of riots targeting mosques and asylum hotels this summer.

In a speech, which politicians and rights groups say recalled rightwing politician's Enoch Powell’s notorious “rivers of blood” speech, Starmer defended Labour's plans to curb net migration to the UK.

During Monday's speech he said that the country risked becoming “an island of strangers” and that he intended to “take back control of our borders”, referring to the UK, and end a “squalid chapter” of increased migration.

Powell’s 1968 speech, which warned of a future Britain where the white population would be “strangers in their own country”, sparked widespread attacks on ethnic minorities.

Starmer outlined plans for sweeping reforms of the immigration system, including raising language requirements for all visas including dependents, requiring applicants for skilled workers visas to hold a degree, and an end to overseas recruitment for social care work. 

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Under the new rules, people will now have to wait 10 years rather than five before applying for indefinite leave to remain.

Rights groups have warned that the inflammatory comments risk sparking a resurgence of last summer’s anti-immigration and anti-Muslim riots.

“It's not even a year since the racist riots,” Ravishaan Rahel Muthiah, director of communications at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), told Middle East Eye.

“A lot of people, including ourselves, are saying it’s echoing the far right, but it’s further than that, because the far right don’t have the platform.”

“When the prime minister is saying things that maybe street fascists, or people who comment on our Instagram and social media accounts say, it has a massive effect,” he said.

Muthiah emphasised that the impacts of the measures will not just be felt by migrants, and could have broader implications for communities of colour in the UK.

“The ripple effect will be felt on our streets, will be felt by our clients and it will be felt by the broader communities of British South Asians, British African and Caribbean communities - not just migrants that have newly come to the country, but people that have lived in this country for decades,” Muthiah added.

A propaganda stunt

Campaigners pointed to Labour’s anti-migrant rhetoric in fuelling last summer’s riots which targeted mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers in towns and cities across the UK.

“Controlling the UK’s borders” was central to Labour’s election campaign, with Starmer pledging to slash “sky-high” net migration figures and to “smash the gangs”, echoing the Conservative “stop the boat” slogan.

Despite announcing the former Conservative government’s flagship Rwanda scheme “dead and buried,” Starmer’s government has turbocharged deportations, releasing video footage of people being led onto deportation flights.

Chief executive of the NGO Care4Calais, Steven Smith, pointed out that although Starmer’s speech was addressing legal migration, the policies and rhetoric effectively demonise those seeking asylum in the UK.

“It's interesting that within minutes of Starmer’s speech finishing yesterday morning Nigel Farage was already proclaiming that 250 people seeking asylum had already been seen in small boats trying to cross the channel during the speech itself,” Smith told MEE.

“It's a massive propaganda stunt. Although the talk is about legal migration, the impact people think of is rubber boats and orange life jackets. 

“We saw the riots over the summer, and if we continue to see language like this being used, we’ll see riots again this summer,” Smith warned.

Maddy Crowther, co-executive director at the NGO Waging Peace, warned that the fallout of the new polices and Starmer’s inflammatory rhetoric will be felt by the small number of Sudanese who have fled the conflict and sought refuge in the UK.

“We host a vanishingly small proportion of those fleeing deadly violence in Sudan given there are no safe and legal routes to seek safety here. We should be creating a culture of welcome for such individuals, not of antipathy,” she told MEE.

Rhetoric aside, JCWI is concerned about the impact of the new policies on its clients, which Muthiah highlighted will impact the poorest. 

He described the new language requirements, which demand that every adult accompanying  a worker to the UK pass an online English Level A1 test, as “racist” and “classist”.

Should workers apply for a visa extension, their dependents will be required to pass the English A2 test.

“I don't know whether that requirement will stand for the millionaires or billionaires that may be coming into this country. And I don't know whether it will stand for, for example, football players. There are football players that come to our country to multi-million pound deals - a lot of the time they don't speak English,” Muthiah said.

The changes will also directly impact JCWI’S staff.

'The plans don’t take into account people who are trying to plan their lives'

- Sarker Shams Bin Sharif,  Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Sarker Shams Bin Sharif, JCWI’s digital campaigner, is facing a prolonged wait before he can apply for indefinite leave to remain (ILR).

“The plans don’t take into account people who are trying to plan their lives,” Sharif said.

Before the raft of measures was announced, Sharif had to pay a bill of over £20,000 ($26,500) to renew his skilled worker visa for himself and his family.

It will last him three years, but the changes mean he will have to renew the visa for another two years after that before he can apply for ILR.

“It’s extremely punitive and taxing, and they’ve just doubled it without any consultation of anyone involved,” Sharif said.

Furthermore, Sharif noted that those on visas have no recourse to public funds, a visa condition which prevents most migrants from accessing the majority of state-funded benefits, including child care. 

“The government doesn’t cover any of it, your child is going to be one of those children who will not have the luxury of going to nursery. When they grow up, they will always be a few steps behind,” he said.

“This is the whole system, they want to create a class of people who will be suffering and who can be blamed. That’s the desired effect they’re having on every migrant.”

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