Children born in the UK could be deported under asylum reforms

Children born in the UK to refugee parents could still be deported under the Government’s asylum reforms.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood set out changes to the asylum system on Monday which will see refugee status become temporary and subject to review every 30 months.

Refugees will also only be able to apply for permanent settlement after 20 years, instead of five years currently.

After each review they could be forced to go home if their country is deemed safe.

Plans to deport asylum seekers who have their claims refused, including families with children, will also apply to children born in the UK where their parents have no right to be in the country.

The Times reported officials said children would be required to leave the country with their parents if their refugee status is revoked.

A source told the paper it was to ensure there are no “perverse incentives” for refugees to have children in the UK “on the basis that they can stay”.

Ms Mahmood said on Monday there are around 700 Albanian families with failed asylum claims who are not able to be deported.

“We are not going to separate parents and their children, but we are going to consult on the removal of support and how we effectively and safely ensure that those individuals are returned,” she said.

She added that an equality impact assessment would be conducted.

According to the i newspaper, the asylum reforms will also apply retrospectively to refugees already in the UK once the legislation is introduced.

This means for refugees who have not secured long-term status by the time the changes come into force, they will also be subject to the regular checks and sent back to their home country if it is determined to be safe.

On Tuesday, Labour peer Lord Alf Dubs, who fled Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia and arrived in England on Kindertransport, said it was a “shabby thing” that Ms Mahmood was using “children as a weapon”.

He told the BBC’s Today programme on Tuesday: “I find it upsetting that we’ve got to adopt such a hard line – what we need is a bit of compassion in our politics and I think that some of the measures were going in the wrong direction, they won’t help.”

The refugee campaigner also said that “to use children as a weapon, as the Home Secretary is doing, I think is a shabby thing” as he pointed to the fate of children born in the UK and integrated into communities whose parents are slated for removal.

The Home Office is also understood to be setting out changes to the way a person can apply for settled status in due course.

As part of the reforms, refugees in the UK under the “core protection” system will be encouraged to switch to a new “protection work and study” route where they will be able to earn earlier settlement this way.

They would be eligible for this route if they get a job or study at the appropriate level and pay fees.

Elsewhere, Ms Mahmood told ITV that the safe and legal routes being introduced under the plans will first allow “a few hundred” asylum seekers and it will be expanded over time.

The new pathways for work, study and community sponsorship are hoped to help cut dangerous journeys in small boats across the English Channel.

For those arriving on these resettlement routes for work and study, they could be offered permanent settlement in 10 years, subject to consultation.