If the Home Secretary’s twin making of his controversial series of immigration reform announcements this week was to receive a lease of endorsement from the far right and make migrants quake in their boots, he succeeded – perhaps even exceeded – his own expectations.
The endorsement came on Saturday, courtesy of Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. In response to a post on X that Shabana Mahmood predicted would announce that refugees would only be granted a temporary stay in the UK and deported if their home countries were eventually deemed safe, she posted: “The Overton window is gone, well done patriots.” Meanwhile, the asylum seekers and refugees I spoke to were panicking, shaking and crying at the prospect of rising again after feeling safe in the UK, often after experiencing years of risk and danger.
Since last Thursday, journalists have been receiving an average of one release from the home office every few hours, each focused on a different aspect of what Mahmood described as “the most sweeping reforms to deal with illegal migration in modern times”. But a quick investigation beneath the surface of the eye-catching we-mean-business sloganeering reveals a mix of recycling, hype and implausible promises. According to the Home Secretary, support will end for those who “game the system”, while the days of a “soft-touch asylum system are over” because he will tear up the refugees’ “golden ticket” in the UK. There is a disturbing uneasiness about all this among Labor voters and MPs.
Mahmood is also enthusiastic about the success of Stress Labor so far. Departures increased, according to the home office, with 11,231 asylum-related departures in the year to November 2025. But many of these departures were to countries considered safe, such as Brazil and India, which have historically had very low rates of granting asylum—not a sign that officials are grumbling outside of the thousands of asylum seekers who have arrived from conflict zones. in small boats.
And his plan to get tough on Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo by refusing to grant visas to their nationals if they don’t play foreign national offenders isn’t quite the gamechanger he claims. Only a few thousand visas were granted last year to migrants from all three countries combined, according to home office data. Granting or not granting such a relatively small number of visas, despite making a huge difference to the individuals involved, would make a dent in overall immigration numbers that the home office is desperate to reduce.
Another threat is to reduce asylum and immigration appeal rights claimed to a “single appeal route”, according to a home office release. I asked if this meant that further appeal rights, such as the upper immigration chamber tribunal, would be scrapped. No, officials said.
The announcement of asylum accommodation is eye-catchingly draconian. It would withdraw the right to automatic financial support for asylum seekers who are otherwise poor. But not for most 100,000 asylum seekers it received. It will only apply to the 8,500 asylum seekers who arrived in the UK on a visa before making an asylum claim. Aid will be “discretionary”, meaning it will be denied to those who can work or own property. It is not known How many will actually lose their support, and how many will be sick of working or unable to find work.
Excluding asylum seekers who have independent financial means, break the law or work illegally from asylum accommodation is not new, as this home office guide from March 2023 shows.
As for the jewelry confiscation plan, the optics may appeal to anyone who believes asylum seekers have arrived on dinghies draped in bling. But this does not apply to most of the asylum seekers I have met, many of whom sell their last worldly possessions to cross the channel in the hope of reaching safety. Even in Denmark, where the policy was initiated, properties were confiscated only 17 times between 2016 and 2022. Many, like green peer Jenny Jones, are “disgusted” by the idea.
The decision quadrupled the amount of time before a refugee could settle permanently in the UK, From five years to 20, there will be far-reaching consequences. As one Syrian refugee told me after hearing the governments revolt: “I feel stabbed by the government applauding UK reform and people with racist and fascist views. I’m more afraid of walking down the street in case I get attacked by racists. Again.”
It is unlikely that conditions will significantly improve in the main conflict zones where refugees will be left to keep coming. from – Eritrea, Afghanistan, Sudan and Iran. People from these countries are likely to be left in a state of long-term limbo for a significant chunk of their productive lives, making it harder to secure a job, find housing and put down roots. But they’re not really going anywhere.
After the newsletter promotion
Perhaps the government felt the pain was worth it, and people would obediently stop coming to the UK. But own research has shown what the pull factors are -And benefits, nice houses and putting their feet at the expense of taxpayers are not among them. There is no evidence that any of the measures introduced so far have done anything to reduce the number of asylum seekers arriving in the UK. Small boat crossings continue to be high despite the launch of deterrents such as “one in, one out”. Thousands have crossed the channel since the policy was launched on August 6th.
There is a consensus that our immigration system needs to be tightly controlled, but as Labor MP Sarah Owen said, “A strong immigration system need not be a tyrannical one”. Instead of implementing these harsh and ineffective policies, the UK should work closely with other European countries and the relevant UN bodies such as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to ensure that asylum seekers and refugees are fairly distributed between safe countries, and that the important right to seek sanctuary for those fleeing persecution is not erased beyond recognition.
The government may in time regret receiving a ringing endorsement from Tommy Robinson. It must also regret the damage it will cause, not only to the relatively small number of asylum seekers coming here – just over 100,000 last year – but also to UK society, which will only play out as the language and policies of hatred and division become embedded.
-
Diane Taylor writes on human rights, racism and civil liberties
-
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words via email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
