𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Shabana Mahmood has effectively admitted dangerous rapists are crossing the Channel in small boats. The Home Secretary said you can “almost guarantee that every woman” waiting in camps along the northern coastline has “probably been raped along the journey”. And, in a bombshell interview, Ms Mahmood confirmed the UK will be “accepting people from all over the world” in “the not too distant future”, on Labour’s community sponsorship scheme for refugees. The Labour Cabinet minister also conceded European capitals are refusing to take back small boat arrivals because they fear their own voters.

But, in a startling admission, the Home Secretary accepted women and girls are being targeted – and attacked – by violent predators in camps and on the journey across Europe. She told The Rest is Politics: “We’re not in control of this border.

“The sifting of the people that end up in the north of France and are about to get on a dinghy is done by criminal gangs who are also, by the way, people traffickers. You can almost guarantee that every woman that’s in the north of France has probably been raped along the journey. Some of the men too, they’ve certainly been abused and threatened.”

Ms Mahmood insists Labour is making progress on stopping Channel migrant smuggling gangs repeatedly breaching Britain’s borders. But the Home Office has come under fire after the Daily Express revealed the department is telling migrants not to rape or beat women.

Migrants are being warned domestic abuse is illegal and that the age of consent in the UK is 16. Immigration chiefs wrote, in a controversial leaflet: “Sex with someone under the age of 16 is a serious crime in the UK. There are no exceptions to this rule. Even if they say yes, it is still illegal. You could go to prison, lose your support and accommodation, and it will affect your asylum claim.”

Migrants are also warned not to deny children food, or “cut or harm a girl’s genitals”. And Ms Mahmood opened up on Labour’s struggles returning migrants across the Channel.

She said: “I’m afraid we don’t just get to say, ‘France take them back’, and they just take them back. That doesn’t work. They have to agree to do that.

“Even if we just sent people on a plane and said, off you go, you’re going straight back to France, they can turn that plane back and send it to us as well.”

She pointed to Turkey’s migrant returns deal with the EU. Ankara agreed in 2016 to take back failed asylum seekers who reached the Greek islands.

But the EU’s new asylum pact, which forces members of the bloc to take a greater share of illegal migrants, has descended into chaos after Poland refused to accept any quotas. Asked why France and other EU countries won’t take back Channel migrants, Ms Mahmood said: “They’re politicians too.

“I mean, look, the one-in, one-out deal got underway, really, because there was political will, particularly from the then foreign minister, who’s not, wasn’t Minister Nunez, it was his predecessor. And Yvette had a good conversation about the politics of the north of France and the politics of what was happening in the UK.

“And there was a political alignment for a period that will wax and wane because they’re politicians too, and they’ve got to win an argument back at home for ‘why should we take them back? And, you know, the default position is they’ve left our territory, they’re no longer our problem. So, you know, we’ve put a lot of effort into the one in one out deal.

“And that was the best version of that plan. So, the reason why that kind of burden sharing and returning country of origin within Europe hasn’t got off the ground is because of the pressure it places on the countries that are on the route into Europe.”

Labour’s one-in one-out migrant deal with France collapsed after talks between London and Paris broke down. Officials admitted that too few people were removed under the scheme.

Some 1,500 small boat arrivals were sent back to France, while “just under 1,500 individuals” moved the other way. The Home Secretary insisted Labour, alongside other EU nations, wants to set up ‘return hubs’ for failed asylum seekers.

The proposal would see European nations deporting migrants to a third-country. There, the migrants would be held until they can be returned to their home nations.

Ms Mahmood said: “If you’re about to make that journey and you know that the end result will be a return to somewhere you don’t want to go, it stops people from making the journey. “That’s exactly what sits behind our one-in one-out deal with France. It’s the EU Turkey deal.

“And in a funny way, that was also where the Tories were trying to get to with Rwanda. They couldn’t make it work. That was a sort of you don’t even process people in your own country, you return them somewhere else

“But return hubs are very much where ourselves and other countries in Europe are looking to take policy. Obviously, in the end, you do have to find someone somewhere willing to do a deal. But this government is very actively wanting to explore those sorts of innovative solutions.”

Under Labour’s new plan, community groups will be able to sponsor people to move to the UK. This includes charities, faith groups and businesses.

The Home Office said the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS) will reopen immediately and expects that around 25% of arrivals will be Afghan women and girls and Palestinians.

Hundreds of people are expected to arrive under the UKRS, which stopped taking new applicants in December 2024, and three new sponsorship routes. The first arrivals are expected to be next year.

And Ms Mahmood said: “We should be looking around the world, thinking of the sorts of communities to whom we can make a particular difference, whom we can integrate very quickly.

“We should accept them as refugees before they arrive and then help them integrate into our country.

“I want us to play our full part and do right by people around the world.

“We do have a humanitarian role to play, but that is best done through these new safe and legal routes.

“In the not too distant future, we’ll be accepting people from all over the world on a community sponsorship model. Universities will be able to sponsor students, refugee students, and companies will be able to sponsor refugee workers.”