After days of briefing, the home secretary Shabana Mahmood has released a 33-page document outlining policies she hopes will curb bogus asylum claims and cut the number of people attempting to travel across the Channel in small boats.
Entitled Restoring Order and Control, it aims to reduce arrivals and increase removals. But how will it work?
End of permanent protection for refugees
Refugee status will be made temporary and reviewed every 30 months, the document reads.
“Currently, refugees in the UK receive a five-year initial period of leave,” it says. “In the future this will be reduced significantly.”
Critics of the policy say that, while Labour is taking rhetorical aim at those whose claims do not meet the threshold for refugee status, many of its measures are targeted at those whose claims have been successful.
Zeena Luchowa, chair of the Law Society’s immigration law committee, said: “These changes seem perverse, unreasonable and punitive on individuals who are genuinely seeking asylum.”
Peter Walsh, senior researcher at the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, said this appears to be based on the Danish government’s model, which involves a “light touch” system.
“There are relatively few in Denmark who have their claims reviewed and are then returned. A cohort of 30,000 Syrians have received refugee status there but only a few hundred have been removed,” he said.
Escalate the removal of families including children whose asylum claims have been refused
According to the document, the Labour government will “remove people we have not removed before, including families” – and cut off welfare payments to rejected asylum-seeking families with children who refuse to leave the UK.
“The government will offer all families financial support to enable them to return to their home country. Should they refuse that support, we will escalate to an enforced return. We will launch a consultation on the process for enforcing the removal of families, including children,” the document says.
“As part of the aforementioned consultation, we will consult on commencing measures in the 2016 Immigration Act which will allow us to remove support from families who do not have a genuine obstacle to leaving the country,” the report adds.
It is understood that the Home Office is targeting about 700 Albanian families who have refused to return after having their claims of asylum refused.
Walsh said the policy represents a genuine policy shift and bears similarities to hardline policies in the US where families have been deported under Donald Trump.
The Home Office does not currently prioritise the removal of failed asylum families, which has meant “hundreds” of families whose claims have been rejected have continued to live in government-funded accommodation and receive some support. The current rates are £49 per person, per week if they’re not receiving meals.
Axe legal requirement to support destitute asylum seekers
The government will axe a legal requirement to provide support to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute.
According to the document, this obligation was first introduced in 2005 to implement EU law, which the UK is no longer bound to follow.
It adds: “In the coming months this duty will be revoked, and we will restore a discretionary power to offer support, as previously provided under UK law.
“In doing so, we will deny support to those who have the right to work and could therefore support themselves.”
These include people who first enter the country on work or student visas before claiming asylum.
Those who work illegally, commit crimes or do not comply with deportation will also no longer receive support.
Plans to introduce a new definition of ‘family’ to curb claims from extended families
On article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the government is promising to legislate to make sure the right to family life only applies to immediate family.
But legal precedent shows courts very rarely allow article 8 claims for anyone other than immediate families, and that the only circumstances in which they might do so is if there is an obvious close familial relationship.
“Courts pay attention to real family bonds, not what is written on a piece of paper,” said Sam Fowles, a barrister and author. “So if you want to claim the right to family life based on someone outside your immediate family, you would have to show with evidence and witness statements that those bonds are really close familial ones.”
