Scottish Refugee Council calls out the UK government’s harsh new asylum rules, which make refugee status temporary, leaving people fleeing war and persecution in limbo.
These proposals are, quite simply, cruel.
They also risk destabilising Scotland’s internationally recognised approach to integration which has been in place for decades.
Placing refugees in a perpetual state of limbo will not stop people fleeing war. It will, however, be costly to maintain — money that could be far better invested in fixing a broken system.
These changes will stop people who have survived unimaginable danger from putting down roots and rebuilding their lives. Short-term leave means refugee families who have endured war, persecution and profound trauma will face renewed uncertainty every 30 months, damaging integration in the long term.
Above all, pushing forward with changes of this scale without the courage to properly put them through the democratic process and allowing MPs the chance to scrutinise them is deeply concerning. These proposals will also likely face legal challenge, creating further uncertainty and additional costs for the public purse.
Men, women and children who have already lost so much should be able to settle into communities and have the right to work. Instead, these proposals make employment, study and integration harder. They will also dramatically increase bureaucratic pressure, creating a massive administrative burden with associated costs running into millions of pounds. Crucially, they apply to every new asylum claim from today.
It is especially troubling that a public consultation on these measures which only closed a matter of weeks ago, appears to have been disregarded before responses were even properly analysed. That undermines public confidence in the consultation process and raises serious questions about whether engagement was ever genuinely intended to shape policy.
People seeking safety need stability to rebuild their lives and contribute fully to society. Policies that create permanent insecurity will not bring communities together – they will only cause division.
We urge the UK government to reconsider these proposals and genuinely engage with the communities that will be affected, before rushing headlong into policy which will make people’s lives worse.