Keir Starmer should drop the pursuit of Italy’s “costly and ultimately ineffective” migration deterrence policies if the UK is to put an end to people dying in the Channel, a global charity led by David Miliband has warned.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC), where the former Labour foreign secretary is president and chief executive, said the UK government should instead give refugees access to safe routes so they are no longer forced to make dangerous crossings.
The intervention comes hours after Starmer praised the hard-right Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, for making “remarkable progress” in cutting irregular migration across the Mediterranean.
“You’ve made remarkable progress working with countries along migration routes as equals to address the drivers of migration at source and to tackle the gangs,” Starmer said at a joint press conference.
Meloni said Starmer had shown “great interest” in Italy’s deal to process 3,000 asylum claimants in Albania, and brushed aside claims that Italy’s policies breach international human rights laws.
Khusbu Patel, the acting executive director of the IRC UK, said that Starmer should instead open safe routes. “Today’s discussions in Italy take place after a weekend that saw at least eight lives lost in the Channel, just days after the deadliest crossing this year.
“These tragic incidents serve as a reminder that instead of prioritising costly and ultimately ineffective deterrence policies, the new government should focus on solutions that work, such as scaling up safe routes and investing in our asylum system.
“This is the only way to create a system that is effective and compassionate, and one where people are not forced to risk their lives making treacherous journeys in the first place,” she said.
The statement from the IRC follows condemnation of the Starmer government’s praise for Meloni’s policies from the Refugee Council, Amnesty and the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.
Miliband, 59, was once seen as the political heir to Tony Blair and became the youngest foreign secretary for 30 years when promoted to the position by Gordon Brown.
He resigned as an MP in 2013 to take up the positions at the IRC at its headquarters in New York. His friends said, at the time, that he did so to end the “permanent pantomime” over his political relationship with his younger brother Ed, the current environment secretary, who narrowly beat him to the Labour leadership in 2010.
Italy reached an agreement with Albania in November to host two centres where people would be housed while their asylum claims are processed.
Meloni’s government has also signed a deal with Tunisia, granting it aid in exchange for greater efforts to stop Italy-bound refugees who leave the north African country to cross the Mediterranean. Rome has also renewed a deal with the Libyan government to provide training and funding to the coastguard.
Human rights groups have said the deals have resulted in the widespread abuse and detention of thousands of refugees in Libya and Tunisia.
Francesca Saccomandi, a social worker at the charity Mediterranean Hope in Lampedusa, said European and Italian policies of externalising borders have decreased arrivals, but not deaths at sea. Those who survive the journey from north Africa have been subjected to unacceptable levels of violence, she said.
“A few days ago, a Sudanese man who had spent eight months in Sfax [in Tunisia] landed in Lampedusa. During these months, he had already tried to cross the sea four times, but the previous three times the Tunisian national guard had intercepted the boat and from the port of Sfax had deported him to the border with Algeria, in the middle of the desert.
“The agreements with Tunisia and Libya support the systematic violation of basic human rights,” she said.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We already offer a number of safe and legal routes for the most vulnerable people and our priority is to make sure these are being used appropriately.
“We are determined to restore order to the asylum system so we can process cases, review them and take action to remove people when they have no right to be here.”