Shabana Mahmood will announce next week the most radical asylum reforms since the Second World War to end Britain’s “excessive generosity” towards migrants.
On Monday the home secretary will set out fundamental reforms to increase deportations and reduce the pull factors to Britain that have made it Europe’s destination for “asylum shoppers” .
The reforms will be based on successful changes made in Denmark and other European countries that have made it harder to claim asylum and easier to remove people.
Mahmood will set out radical measures to fix what she believes is a “twin crisis” responsible for the record levels of asylum claims lodged in the UK since the pandemic.
The Home Office published figures showing that nearly 50,000 illegal migrants have been removed or deported from the UK since Labour entered power in July last year, which it said was a 23 per cent increase compared with the 16 months beforehand. Over the past year, 11,231 failed asylum seekers have been removed, an increase of 27 per cent.
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Home Office sources said that the unprecedented number of migrants driven by “excessive generosity and ease of remaining” had combined with systemic barriers and made it extremely difficult to remove people.
Mahmood will blame these two factors for the number of asylum seekers soaring in the past four years. More than 400,000 people have claimed asylum since 2021, compared with 150,000 claims between 2011 and 2015.
Only 100,000 failed asylum seekers have been removed since 2021, meaning that only one in four are deported. Mahmood believes this low ratio is creating a pull factor.
A dossier compiled for Mahmood, seen by The Times, highlights how these numbers contrast with declining figures in the rest of Europe.
Although asylum claims in the UK have increased by 18 per cent since 2021, the EU has seen a decrease of 13 per cent, according to the Home Office research. Mahmood believes this is proof that Britain has become “a destination of choice for ‘asylum shoppers’”.
Protesters outside The Britannia Hotel in Bournemouth
MAX WILLCOCK/BNPS
The changes will include requiring judges to prioritise public safety over the rights of failed asylum seekers who try to use the European Convention on Human Rights to argue that deportation would breach their family rights or put them at risk of “inhuman treatment”.
Mahmood will introduce a one-stop shop for all asylum and modern slavery claims to end abuse of the justice system. The reforms will make it easier to remove families from the UK if conditions in their home country improve.
A Home Office source said that families were “hardly ever removed”, which created “perverse incentives” for illegal migrants to have children in the UK, cross the Channel in small boats with children or send minors ahead of adults.
Home Office figures showed that 10 per cent of all small boat arrivals were under 17 in the first six months of this year, including unaccompanied children.
The changes will be the “most sweeping reforms to tackle illegal migration in modern times”, a Home Office source said. They will be closely modelled on reforms introduced by Denmark in 2016 that led asylum claims to drop to a 40-year low. Denmark also deported 95 per cent of all rejected asylum seekers.
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Asylum seekers in Denmark are granted only temporary, two-year protection initially. Denmark has regular reviews that allow deportations if conditions in the person’s home country have improved. People are eligible for permanent settlement only after eight years and if they meet strict conditions, such as showing a long-term employment record, learning a high standard of Danish and not claiming benefits. They can bring family members to join them after two years but only if they meet strict eligibility criteria.
Mihnea Cuibus, a researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said: “A lot of the measures introduced by the Danish government were designed to create the narrative and image that Denmark does not welcome refugees and create this negative image among asylum seekers.”
Asylum seekers granted refuge in the UK are given the right to live, work and study for an initial five years, giving them access to benefits and the right to bring family for free. There are nearly 120,000 refugees receiving universal credit. A record 20,817 refugee family reunion visas were issued last year, a five-fold increase from two years ago.
The average application to bring a family member to the UK is now submitted only a month after someone is granted asylum, and some people apply before they leave a Home Office hotel.
After the initial five-year period, refugees can apply for indefinite leave to remain, which they are almost automatically granted. This allows them to live, work and study in the UK permanently and opens up more rights and benefits, including the right to apply for British citizenship a year later.
Mahmood’s reforms could attract significant criticism. Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said the idea that migrants were “asylum-shopping” was fantasy. He said: “People who have been persecuted, tortured or seen family members killed in brutal wars are not making choices between countries.
“Refugees don’t compare asylum systems before running for their lives. They come to the UK because they already have family here, speak some English or have long-standing ties that help them rebuild their lives in safety.”