Migrants leave the coast of northern France on an inflatable dinghy in an attempt to cross the English Channel on Sept. 27. So far this year 111,800 people have claimed asylum in the U.K., including 43,600 arriving on boats like this one from France.Abdul Saboor/Reuters
British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced plans for sweeping changes to the country’s asylum system that she said will “restore order and control” over U.K. borders.
The proposals include no longer granting refugee status on a permanent basis, ramping up deportations of families and using the assets of asylum seekers to help cover the costs of their accommodation.
“Our asylum system is broken. The breaking of that asylum system is causing huge division across our whole country. It is a moral mission for me to resolve that division,” Ms. Mahmood told the House of Commons on Monday.
The government has been under increasing pressure to crack down on immigration and stop asylum seekers from crossing the English Channel on small boats from France.
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Figures released by the Home Office showed that, since 2021, more than 400,000 people have claimed asylum in the U.K. That’s roughly three times higher than the total number of claimants a decade earlier, from 2011 to 2015, according to the department. So far this year, 111,800 people have claimed asylum, including 43,600 who arrived in small boats from France.
“Arrivals have grown rapidly, but the removal of illegal migrants has not kept pace, and this has been particularly true in recent years,” Ms. Mahmood said.
The Home Secretary’s proposals borrow heavily from Denmark, where the government has introduced several reforms to tighten immigration and make it easier to deport asylum seekers. The “radical transformation” of Denmark’s system has resulted in asylum claims falling to a 40-year low last year, Ms. Mahmood said in a policy document detailing her plans.
The biggest proposed change involves a shift in the treatment of refugees from permanent to temporary protection.
Under Britain’s current asylum system, refugees with legitimate claims receive five years of protection. They can then apply for permanent residency, which is almost always automatically approved. The proposed changes will grant protection for just 30 months, and claims will be reviewed before being renewed for another 30-month period.
Refugees could be deported if the review were to find that their home country has been deemed safe. They will also have to wait 20 years before they can apply for permanent residency. However, those who are working or studying English could be eligible for a faster route to permanent residency, the department said.
“Just like in Denmark, refugee status becomes temporary – lasting only until a refugee can safely return home,” Ms. Mahmood said.
British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood speaks at the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool on Sept. 29.Hannah McKay/Reuters
The Home Secretary is also promising to tighten the appeals and enforcement processes in order to speed up deportations, including those of families with children.
Until now, the Home Office has been reluctant to deport families, and the policy document said many have remained in the U.K. for years despite having their claims rejected. “We will launch a consultation on the process for enforcing the removal of families, including children,” Ms. Mahmood said.
The government also plans to restrict housing and financial benefits for asylum seekers. Claimants “who have assets will be forced to contribute to their bed-and-board,” Ms. Mahmood said. Home Office officials added that seized assets could include cars – but they have denied rumours that jewellery could be taken from claimants.
There will also be new legislation to tighten how British courts interpret a key section of the European Convention on Human Rights, or ECHR, which guarantees the right to family and private life. Ms. Mahmood said the section has been broadly interpreted by some judges to prevent asylum seekers from being deported, since they will be separated from extended family members and their way of life.
The new law will narrow the application of the ECHR to ensure that individual rights don’t outweigh the public interest in deporting claimants, Ms. Mahmood said. She added that the definition of family will be limited to immediate family members such as parents and children, not extended relatives such as aunts or cousins.
Britain is also threatening to stop issuing visas to people from Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo if their governments refuse to co-operate on taking back people removed from the U.K.
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Ms. Mahmood faced immediate backlash from opposition politicians and some Labour backbench MPs.
Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch said the changes did not go far enough and that anyone “who comes here illegally should be deported.”
Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage, whose party has topped opinion polls by campaigning for less immigration, doubted the measures would ever take effect. “The ECHR and her own backbenchers mean that this will never happen,” he said.
Some of the toughest criticism came from Labour MPs who said the plans were too severe.
“Draconian, unworkable and potentially illegal anti-asylum policies only feed Reform’s support,” veteran MP Diane Abbott wrote on X.
MP Tony Vaughan, a lawyer who specialized in immigration, described the proposals as wrongheaded.
“The idea that recognized refugees need to be deported is wrong,” Mr. Vaughan said on social media. “We absolutely need immigration controls. And where those controls decide to grant asylum, we should welcome and integrate, not create perpetual limbo and alienation.”