Labour Scraps Right to Permanent Asylum for Refugees

Asylum seekers arriving in the UK will now face reassessment every 30 months for 20 years, making permanent asylum an unattainable dream. 

Home secretary Shabana Mahmood has said that refugees whose home countries are considered safe at the time of reassessment will be forced to return. There will be no parliamentary vote on the new rules.

The announcement comes days after Mahmood’s visit to Denmark, where the left-wing government’s harsh immigration policy has reduced asylum claims by 90%. Amnesty International and the European Court of Human Rights have both accused Denmark of breaching the rights of refugees. 

Mahmood told the Guardian that Labour MPs should support major immigration reforms or risk letting Nigel Farage deport refugees “to certain death”.

Speaking to the BBC, she said the government is “changing an age-old assumption of what it means to be a refugee – moving from a permanent to temporary status”.

The new system will apply to adults and accompanied minors who enter the UK from today onwards, and will not be retrospectively applied. Only after 20 years will refugees have the right to apply for indefinite leave to remain. 

Andrea Egan, the general secretary of Unison, said the move risked alienating Labour’s progressive flank in a bid to combat Reform. Migrant charity Women for Refugee Women labelled Mahmood’s decision “morally and ethically bankrupt.” 

The Calais Food Collective said the new rules would force arrivals into the black market and make them vulnerable to exploitation. 

“There’s been a reduction in the amount of asylum cases that have come to the UK in the past year, but an increase in irregular crossings,” said the charity’s Lachlan Macrae. “That means you have people crossing who then don’t claim asylum because they are fearful of the system that they’re going to be put into.”

“This won’t stop people crossing. It will only cause more insecurity and suffering,” he added.

Analysis by the Refugee Council suggests the Home Office will have to conduct between 1.7 and 1.9 million refugee status reviews in the first decade of implementing the rule change, costing up to £1.3 billion.

In November, Refugee Council CEO Enver Solomon said Britain’s immigration system was “weighed down by repeated checks”. 

“We know from our frontline services that stability is what allows people to heal, learn English, find work and become part of their communities,” he said. “If the government wants a system that supports contribution and integration, we must provide people with the security to get on with their lives.”

Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.