Britain has announced plans to overhaul its immigration regulations, implementing the most significant reforms to its asylum seeker policy in years, in response to growing anti-immigration sentiment and challenges from right-wing parties.
The new policy, which the ruling Labor government will unveil in full on Monday, is partly modeled on the approach of Denmark, which has Europe’s toughest rules for refugees.
Labor is tightening its immigration policies, particularly against illegal small boat crossings from France, in a bid to counter the rising populist British Reform Party, which advocates an “immigration freeze” and a “boat stop”.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmoud is expected to announce the end of permanent protection for refugees and cuts to living allowances as part of a series of reforms aimed at making Britain less attractive to illegal immigrants.
“On Monday, we will be announcing the most significant changes to our asylum system in modern times,” Mahmoud said in a video posted on X.
“We need to reduce the number of people who come here illegally. We need to remove more people who have no right to be here. We will always be a country that provides protection to those fleeing danger, but we must restore order and control.”
Mahmoud previewed his overhaul in an interview with Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper, detailing some of the key reforms the Labor government plans to enact.
These include forcing people in the country illegally to wait 20 years before applying for permanent residence, and making refugee status temporary, with applicants reviewed every 30 months and allowed to return home from countries deemed safe. Those who enter the country legally will face a 10-year journey to permanent residence, twice as long as it currently takes.
Mr Mahmoud warned that if the UK does not deal with the growing number of illegal migrants arriving in the country, the country will become “further divided”.
“I know, and my colleagues know, that illegal immigration is tearing this country apart. It’s our job as a Labor government to bring the country together,” she told The Sunday Times.
The centre-left Labor Party has found itself under pressure from all sides of the political divide on immigration.
The British left tends to support a more compassionate response to immigration and asylum, while the right tends to advocate reducing or cracking down on immigration. Mahmood, herself the daughter of immigrants from the Pakistani side of Kashmir, may have a difficult time selling the policy to more progressive members of her own party.
But the rise of Nigel Farage’s populist British Reform Party has set the terms of British political debate, pushing the Labor government into a corner over the fight to curb illegal immigration, while public anger and far-right demonstrations are growing in parts of the country over housing and public funding for refugees.
Britain’s previous Conservative government attempted to address the issue by passing a controversial bill that would allow the East African country to send asylum seekers back to Rwanda to process their claims.
Mahmoud said the deal cost 700 million pounds ($920 million) and only four people were deported, all of them volunteers.
Britain’s new policy takes inspiration from Denmark and other European countries, where refugee status is temporary, support is conditional and there is an expectation of integration.
“The UK will now meet, and in some areas exceed, these standards,” the Home Office said in a statement.
Under Britain’s current system, introduced by the previous Labor government in 2005, refugees can apply for indefinite leave to remain after five years, which gives them access to public funds and eventually citizenship.
By contrast, the new 20-year route would make Britain’s path to reconciliation the longest in Europe, followed by Denmark’s eight years.
Denmark has been known for its strict immigration policies for more than a decade, with the Interior Ministry saying it has reduced asylum applications to a 40-year low and eliminated 95% of rejected applicants.
But the reforms have drawn heavy criticism, with rights groups saying the measures will foster a hostile atmosphere for migrants, undermine protections and leave asylum seekers in a prolonged state of insecurity.
Earlier this year, a British delegation comprising senior Home Office officials visited the capital, Copenhagen, to investigate Denmark’s asylum approach, Reuters reported.
There, immigrants are usually only given temporary residence permits for two years and must reapply once they expire.
In a video speech on X, Mahmoud said that asylum claims are increasing in the UK, even as asylum claims are decreasing in other parts of Europe.
“400,000 people have applied for asylum here in the last four years,” she said. “More than 100,000 people are receiving housing and support at taxpayers’ expense, putting enormous pressure on local communities.”
The UK Refugee Council criticized the new policy announcement.
“People who have been persecuted, tortured, or seen their families killed in brutal wars are not ‘asylum shoppers’…refugees do not compare asylum systems before fleeing for their lives,” the group wrote to X.
“We know why people come to the UK – because they already have families, because they speak some English, or because they have long-standing ties that can help them rebuild a safe life,” it added.
