Shabana Mahmood threatens Trump-style visa ban on three African countries in deportations push

Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo will face sanctions if they do not improve co-operation on removals.

The trio have collectively refused to take back more than 4,000 illegal migrants and foreign criminals from the UK.

They are the first countries to be formally threatened with visa bans with their governments given a month to start co-operating before sanctions are imposed.

Ms Mahmood formally issued the threat of visa bans on Thursday by writing to the countries’ embassies in London, Home Office sources told The Times.

Set to be fully unveiled on Monday, the Home Secretary vowed to bring "order and control back into our system" by creating new "safe" routes for people arriving in the UK.

The changes are part of wide-ranging measures to dramatically increase deportations.

The Home Office said the countries were the most “obstructive” in refusing to take back citizens and the bans would act as a deterrent to show others the UK was prepared to extend visa bans to other countries.

The Times also reported India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Somalia and Gabon are believed to be the other countries most resistant to taking back illegal migrants and could also join the list over the coming year.

Ms Mahmood said: “In Britain, we play by the rules. When I said there would be penalties for countries that do not take back criminals and illegal immigrants, I meant it.

“My message to foreign governments today is clear: accept the return of your citizens or lose the privilege of entering our country.”

Under the proposals, refugees will also be forced to return to their home countries as soon as it is deemed safe under the new reforms.

Earlier, Ms Mahmood pledged to end this “golden ticket” which the government said had seen asylum claims surge in the UK, drawing people across Europe, through safe countries and onto dangerous small boats.

Ms Mahmood has insisted, over recent days, that Labour has spearheaded "record levels" of immigration raids and arrests, and that nearly 50,000 people with no right to be in the UK had been returned.

But, at the same time, more migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats.

Some 39,075 people have arrived in the UK after making the journey so far this year, according to the latest Home Office figures.

The arrivals have already passed the number for the whole of 2024 (36,816) and 2023 (29,437), but the number is still below the total at this point in 2022 (39,929).

Meanwhile, the Government's pilot scheme with France aimed at deterring people from making the dangerous crossing, has removed 113 people to the continent since it was introduced in August, while 92 have arrived in the UK under the deal's approved safe route.

Also according to the Times, Ms Mahmood is said to have been inspired by Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, who has overseen the US’s mass deportation policy.

A source close to the Home Secretary said Noem had left a “lasting, positive impression on her” after they met for the first time in September.

“She’s clearly a fearsome operator but with an underappreciated intellect and eye for detail,” the source said.

Speaking with LBC on Sunday, the Immigration and Citizenship Minister Mike Tapp said the Home Secretary's "sweeping changes" to the UK's asylum system come as Brits are "fed up" with being seen as a "soft touch".

Branding immigration a "moral mission", the Home Secretary's overhaul of the UK immigration system is set to be based on the Danish asylum model - with asylum seekers who travel to the UK illegally set face a 20-year wait to gain settled status.

"Of course we must help people - it's British values, to be fair. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be firm," said Mr Tapp, speaking to LBC's Iain Dale, in for Lewis Goodall on Sunday.

"We accept that the public are fed up. We're fed up with the asylum shopping that's going on across Europe," he said.

Speaking on what this means for those who might marry and have children with an English person, the Labour MP for Dover and Deal said there would be flexibility for those who "integrating"."Of course, after 20 years, and there'll be a system where if you're contributing and if you're integrating, then that time can come down," he said.

"It's important that people that come here do contribute to society and that they integrate, because that has been a part of the problem."

It comes as Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told LBC that the measures don't go far enough.

"I reject that entirely. I am the child of immigrants. My parents came to this country illegally, in the late 60s and early 70s," she said on Sunday.

"I can see that illegal migration is creating division across our country. I can see that it is polarising communities across the country. I can see that it is dividing people and making them estranged from one another," she continued.

Ms Mahmood was also seen to reject claims that the new Labour policies were "racist" amid suggestions they are nothing more than an attempt to fight off the threat posed by Reform UK.