Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the UK has not been tough enough at removing failed asylum seekers as she unveiled the biggest shake-up in a generation – but faced criticism over the plans
Shabana Mahmood claimed the UK had not been tough enough removing failed asylum seekers as she unveiled the biggest shake-up in a generation – sparking a furious backlash.
The Home Secretary announced a string of hardline measures, ordering officials to stop being hesitant about kicking out families including children. And she revealed that the Government is investigating enforced returns to Syria after the brutal regime led by Bashar al-Assad was toppled.
In a policy document published on Monday, she accused her predecessors of being a soft touch, writing: “We have shown ourselves unwilling to show the necessary toughness or resolve to assert our right to return those with no right to be here.” Under new rules, people granted asylum will have to wait 20 years to apply to settle permanently.
READ MORE: 14 major asylum system changes as Shabana Mahmood announces draconian shake-upREAD MORE: ​Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood faces Labour MP backlash over asylum shake-up
And those awarded the protection will have their status reviewed every two-and-a-half years – meaning they could be removed if their homeland is deemed to be safe. But the measures have been condemned by Labour backbenchers, human rights campaigners and opposition groups.
Labour MP Nadia Whittome told the Commons: “It’s shameful that a Labour government is ripping up the rights and protections of people who have endured unimaginable trauma. Is this how we want to be treated if we were fleeing for our lives? Of course not.
“So how can we be adopting such obviously cruel policies? Is the Home Secretary proud that the government has sunk to such depths that it’s now being praised by Tommy Robinson?”
Far-right agitator Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, welcomed some of Labour’s measures on social media at the weekend. And Nigel Farage’s No2, Reform deputy leader Richard Tice, quipped that Ms Mahmood is “beginning to sound as though she’s sort of bringing an application to join Reform”.
Ms Mahmood told MPs it is an “uncomfortable truth” that UK’s “generous” asylum support is drawing people to the UK. She warned that unless the Government can regain control of the asylum system, “those who seek to divide us will grow stronger” – in a veiled reference to Reform UK.
Those who are entitled to work but do not do so, and those with significant assets, will be refused what the Home Office has dubbed “automatic handouts”. Asylum seekers with valuables such as cars and e-bikes, or large amounts of gold, will be forced to contribute to their bed-and-board under the proposals.
The Home Secretary said the UK is “tolerant and generous” and said the reforms are “designed to bring unity where others seek to divide”. Ms Mahmood told the Commons the Government will open new, capped, safe and legal routes into the country “as order and control is restored”.
Community and volunteer groups will have more scope to sponsor refugees, with new routes for displaced students to study in the UK will be created. But the Home Secretary confirmed that the legal duty to provide asylum seekers with accommodation and financial support will end.
The document also said there has been a “hesitancy” around sending families back – meaning many receive free accommodation and support “for years on end”. Ms Mahmood told the Commons that around 700 Albanian families were being housed at taxpayer expense, even though they are not classified as being at risk if they returned.
Families will initially be offered financial support to return, but if they refuse, the Home Office will look at enforced returns.
The report stated: “We will launch a consultation on the process for enforcing the removal of families, including children.”
Keir Starmer said the case for reforming the asylum system is “devastatingly simple”, writing that a “stronger deterrent effect and rules that are robustly enforced” are needed.
The appeals process will be streamlined, with claimants granted just a single opportunity to challenge their refusal. The Home Secretary told MPs that a new appeals body will be created to tackle a backlog that stood at 51,000 cases in March.
She said: “Cases with a low chance of success will be fast-tracked, and claimants will have just one opportunity to claim and one to appeal, ending the merry-go-round of claims and appeals that frustrate so many removals.”
Labour’s latest asylum paper said support will only be offered to those who comply with UK law. The same will be true for those who refuse to move location or whose behaviour is deemed disruptive.
It states: “Today, criminality does not exclude an asylum seeker from receiving state support. This is unacceptable, and we will sanction those who take advantage of our generosity.
“This will extend beyond those who break the law and include those who refuse to relocate to a different accommodation site and those who are disruptive in accommodation settings.”
Ms Mahmood claimed hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers have come to the UK in recent years, claiming many “asylum shop” for countries with the most generous support. She wrote: “We have become the destination of choice in Europe, clearly visible to every people smuggler and would-be illegal migrant across the world.”
The Government plans also include sending people back to Syria after Assad was overthrown last year. The policy statement said: “We are now exploring resuming enforced returns to countries where we have not routinely carried out such removals in recent years, including to Syria.”
Ms Mahmood denied “stoking division” after being attacked by a Lib Dem frontbencher. Max Wilkinson, the party’s home affairs spokesman, said: “What is not helpful is the Home Secretary claiming that the country is being torn apart by immigration.
“Acknowledging the challenges facing our nation is one thing, but stoking division by using immoderate language is quite another.”
The Home Secretary shot back: “I wish I had the privilege of walking around this country and not seeing the division that the issue of migration and asylum system is creating across this country.
“Unlike him, unfortunately, I am the one that is regularly called a f****** Paki and told to go back home.
“It is I who knows, through my personal experience and that of my constituents, just how divisive the issue of asylum has become in our country.
“This system is broken, and it is incumbent on all Members of Parliament to acknowledge how badly broken the system is and to make it a moral mission to fix this system so that it stops creating the division that we all see.”
Critics have called on the Government to rethink.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of Refugee Council, said: “These reforms sound tough, but they won’t fix the real problems in the asylum system. Instead, they risk creating more delays, more stress and more inhumane treatment for the very people the system is meant to protect.”
“Revisiting asylum decisions every 30 months won’t bring control, instead it will create further chaos.”
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