The UK’s shadow home secretary Diane Abbott will today call for a fairer immigration system for migrant families in an attempt to get rid of rules that split up such families.
It is thought that she is to announce a new Labour pledge to end the break up of families through the immigration system and to set out a policy based on fairness and reasonableness. Labour will pledge to relax current policies to allow the carers or parents of admitted child refugees to come to the UK and will also end the practice of deporting children who are not entitled to reside in the UK once they turn 18 in cases when their parents are able to remain. She will promote an immigration policy that focuses on humanity and prioritises jobs, growth and prosperity rather than one that is based on targets to the exclusion of much else. The issue of indefinite detention in immigration cases will also be raised and Abbott is also expected to renew Labour’s commitment given at the last general election to abolish the government’s net migration target of less than 100,000 a year.
Abbott’s speech is scheduled to be delivered one day before the quarterly publication of the net migration figures in the UK. These are expected to show growing evidence of declining numbers of European Union nationals moving to Britain to live and work and greater numbers leaving the country.
