The home secretary is seeking “to use children as a weapon” in her changes to the asylum system, a veteran Labour peer who came to Britain as a child refugee has said.
Alf Dubs, who arrived in the UK aged six in 1939 fleeing the persecution of Jews in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, described Shabana Mahmood’s proposals as “a shabby thing”.
Mahmood faced a backlash from Labour MPs and refugee charities on Monday as she set out plans for the biggest shake-up of asylum laws in 40 years.
The Home Office said it would consult on measures to allow the removal of financial support from families with children under the age of 18 if they had been refused asylum. Ministers argue that the current system incentivises asylum seekers to subject their children to dangerous crossings.
A policy document published by the department on Monday said: “Our hesitancy around returning families creates particularly perverse incentives. To some the personal benefit of placing a child on a dangerous small boat outweighs the considerable risks of doing so.
“Once in the UK, asylum seekers are able to exploit the fact that they have had children and put down roots in order to thwart removal, even if their claim has been legally refused.”
In response, Lord Dubs told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There is a proper case for children, there is a proper case for family reunion when there are children who are on their own,” and he said that “to use children as a weapon as the home secretary is doing I think is a shabby thing”.
Mahmood’s proposals include scrapping permanent refugee status and requiring those arriving in the UK as asylum seekers to stay for 20 years – up from five – before they are eligible to settle permanently.
Dubs said he was “depressed” by the government’s “hard line” and said: “On the whole I think we’re going in the wrong direction.”
He said: “What it will do is to increase tensions in local communities and will make this country less welcome than we have traditionally been to welcome people who come here fleeing for safety. What we need is a bit of compassion in our politics.”
Dubs argued that the changes would cause bigger problems with community cohesion because there would be no incentive for communities to welcome asylum seekers who were here only temporarily. He also said it was wrong to remove children who were born and raised in the UK.
“My particular fear is integration in local communities: if people are here temporarily, and people know they’re here temporarily, then the danger is that local people say, well, you’re only here for a bit, why should we help you to integrate? Why should your kids go to local schools? And so on,” he said, adding that refugees “want to make a contribution to our country, that’s their overwhelming wish”.
Steve Reed, the communities secretary, said: “Compassion isn’t all on one side of this argument,” and noted that over the past year 14 children had lost their lives when their boats seeking to cross the Channel capsized.
“What kind of system is it if it has within it incentives that encourage parents to put their child on such a perilous journey on the open seas that can result in that kind of harm and death?” Reed said.
He insisted that ministers were “absolutely committed” to the changes despite an internal backlash, and said the current system of asylum hotels had damaged “community cohesion”.
“One of the reasons that you see the rise of far-right political parties and the tension we’re seeing in communities is because of this issue,” Reed said. “Those far-right parties are not interested in fixing the problem. They only exist because this problem exists.”
But international aid organisations told the UK government not to create “prolonged uncertainty and despair” for refugees after Mahmood’s statement.
The United Nations’ refugee organisation the UNHCR said the government should not treat refugees as if they were economic migrants.
Vicky Tennant, UNHCR’s UK representative, said: “UNHCR urges that they [refugees] be given a stable status that allows them to rebuild their lives and reunite with their families, while a long-term, durable solution is sought.
“Short-term stay arrangements and stringent limitations on refugee family reunion often create prolonged uncertainty and despair, undermining integration and social cohesion.”
Flora Alexander, the International Rescue Committee’s UK executive director, said: “The measures announced by the government today will not fix the system. They will simply exacerbate existing challenges.
“The promise of safe routes is critical, but making admission conditional on credentials will exclude the world’s most vulnerable people.”
Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director, said: “The home secretary’s immigration and asylum plans are cruel, divisive and fundamentally out of step with basic decency.
“Forcing refugees into endless short-term applications, denying visas to partners and children and stripping away support for people who would otherwise be destitute will only deepen chaos, increase costs and hand greater power to people smugglers.”
