Asylum in UK to be made temporary under Home Secretary’s plans
Those granted asylum in the UK will only be allowed to stay temporarily under a policy shift the Home Secretary will announce next week.
Shabana Mahmood will lay out reforms modelled on the Danish system on Monday which aim to make the UK less attractive for illegal immigrants, and make it easier to deport them.
Refugee status will become temporary and subject to regular review under the planned changes, which will see refugees removed as soon as their home countries are deemed safe.
Under current rules, those granted refugee status have it for five years and can then apply for indefinite leave to remain and get on a route to citizenship.
An ally of the Home Secretary said: “Today, becoming a refugee equals a lifetime of protection in Britain.
“Mahmood will change that, making refugee status temporary and subject to regular review. The moment your home country is safe to return to, you will be removed.
“While this might seem like a small technical shift, this new settlement marks the most significant shift in the treatment of refugees since the Second World War.”
In a video posted on X on Friday, Ms Mahmood described her plans, to be announced to MPs on Monday, as “the most significant changes to our asylum system in modern times” and pointed to rising numbers of asylum claims in Britain while numbers fall across Europe.
Rwanda
She said the previous government had had “years to tackle this problem” but had “wasted” time and money on the £700 million Rwanda scheme.
But under Labour, she said, there had been “record levels” of immigration raids and arrests, and that nearly 50,000 people with no right to be in the UK had been returned.
Migrants continued to arrive in the UK after crossing the English Channel on Friday.
Photographs show men, women and children being brought to shore in Dover, with one man sitting at the port in a wheelchair.
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.
Public safety
Other changes expected to be announced on Monday include requiring judges to prioritise public safety over migrants’ rights to a family life, or the risk that they will face “inhuman” treatment if returned to their home country, the Telegraph has reported.
Denmark’s tighter rules on family reunions are also being looked at.
Some research has suggested that deterrence policies have little impact on asylum seekers’ choice of destination, but a 2017 study said Denmark’s “negative nation branding” had proved effective in limiting asylum applications.
The number of asylum applications in the UK is at a record high, as latest Home Office figures show 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025.
This is the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
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Given where the refugees are typically coming from… the Middle East or Africa… I find it incredibly hard to think that they could not have found somewhere safe closer to home and that there only choice was the UK. This also somewhat applies to Ukraine but the UK has a specific scheme for Ukraine. Maybe it is time we reconsidered how closely we follow the UN Refugee convention and implemented a hard cap per year. Anyone who arrives after the cap has been reached would be rejected for the next five years, no waiting until next year, to be deported… Read more »
The UK is still the sixth richest state in the world so your “too poor to help” argument should read “too incompetent to help”.
Some of it’s incompetence, others are based on the fact that citizens of the UK don’t want to pay the amount of tax they should be paying for the services we want the government to provide… such as Healthcare, which if we were paying privately for would be extortionate (see America), social care, pensions, in work benefits…
Of course not forgetting that the rich are not paying their fair share of tax.
The two are not unrelated. Keeping Westminster incompetent and chaotic helps the rich keep more of their money.
That applies to the Home Sec too…
Here eyes are set on Clark’s job…
Who voted for a bucket of crabs…
Labour ever falling down now.