British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has vowed to “restore order" in the UK's asylum system through “radical changes” inspired by the Danish approach, PA Media and DPA reported.
Mahmoud will today present a number of reforms in this area to the House of Commons (the lower house of the British parliament), with which he hopes to make the Island less attractive to illegal migrants, and which will facilitate the procedures for their deportation.
According to Reuters, the Labour government's measures are aimed particularly at illegal arrivals in small boats from France.
The British government intends to repeal the legal obligation to provide support to asylum seekers, introduced in 2005 in accordance with EU law. This means that asylum seekers will no longer be guaranteed housing and weekly benefits.
Currently, support includes the right to accommodation, as well as a weekly allowance of £49.18 per person in each household to cover the costs of food, clothing and toiletries. If the accommodation provides meals, each person receives £9.95 per week instead. There are small increases for pregnant women and young children, the Independent reports. The department also signaled that it would continue to enforce its obligations under the Children Act, which prohibits leaving families with children without means of support.
The Home Office said the new restrictions would apply to migrants who are able to work but choose not to, as well as those who break the law. He said taxpayer-funded support would be prioritised for people who contribute to the economy and local communities, Reuters reported.
Under the proposals, temporary asylum would only be granted for 30 months, after which a review would be made of whether the person's home country was still dangerous.
“Our country has a proud tradition of taking in people fleeing danger, but our generosity is attracting illegal migrants from across the Channel. The speed and scale of migration is putting enormous pressure on communities,” Mahmud said.
It would also quadruple - from the current five to 20 years - the time that foreigners would normally have to wait after being granted refugee status before being granted permanent residence in the UK, the “Financial Times“ reported. Language requirements are also being increased for anyone wishing to stay in the country.
People will be able to move onto faster permanent residency procedures provided they commit to work or study, but will often have to pay high fees.
However, most refugees already receiving support in the UK are unlikely to be affected, the Guardian reported. Government sources said the rules that prevent most foreigners from being employed will not change.
There are around 100,000 people in the UK receiving refugee support, with the vast majority of them housed in government-funded accommodation. About a third are staying in hotels, despite the Labour Party's pledge to end the practice by 2029.
Only about 8,500 people with refugee status out of a total of around 106,000 are allowed to work because they entered the country on a visa and then claimed asylum. People without visas, whose applications have been pending for more than a year through no fault of their own, are sometimes allowed to work, but only in a limited number of areas where there is a significant shortage of suitable candidates.
While around 19,000 people are waiting more than 12 months for a decision on their asylum claim, most of them do not meet the criteria for entry into the job market, and not all those who are eligible have been employed, the Guardian reports.
The Home Office said on Saturday that it had been "too long" Britain has offered accommodation and support that goes beyond its international obligations, creating a "strong pull factor" for people to travel through Europe and reach the country.
The UK Home Office has described the new measures to tighten controls on asylum as the most far-reaching such reform in modern history. "We will restore order and control to our borders," the Home Secretary vowed on Saturday.
According to the EU, Britain receives the fifth highest number of asylum applications in Europe, after Germany, Spain, France and Italy.
The British Home Office said its new proposals for asylum seekers were more generous than those of its closest European neighbours, where controls are also being tightened.
The changes are also seen as an attempt to attract Labour voters who are considering backing Reform UK in the next election.
However, the plans are seen as unpopular with some Labour MPs, particularly those who are worried about losing support to the Greens. and the Liberal Democrats.
The Conservatives said some of the new measures were "welcome" but "fall short of what is really needed".
Chris Philp, the Conservative "shadow home secretary", criticised the Labour government over its asylum policy and said it was incapable of delivering change. "While some of the new measures are welcome, they fall short of what is really needed and some are just another gimmick - like the previous "crush the gangs" trick, he told the Independent.
More than 100 British charities have also written to Mahmoud, urging her to "stop doing things that only cause harm", saying such steps encourage racism and violence.
The British charity Refugee Council said on the social media platform Ex that refugees do not compare asylum systems while fleeing danger, but come to the UK because of family ties, English skills or existing contacts that help them start a new life safely.
The organisation's chief executive, Enver Solomon, called the plans "excessive and unnecessary" and said they would force people into poverty and sleeping rough. He added that making an “already very difficult system” even more punitive would not act as a deterrent.
Meanwhile, anti-immigrant sentiment in Britain continues to grow, with protests this summer outside hotels where refugees are being housed with state funds. Opinion polls show that immigration has replaced the economy as voters’ main concern.
Similar sentiment is spreading across the European Union, after more than a million people – mostly Syrian refugees – arrived across the Mediterranean in 2015-2016, straining infrastructure in some countries. Unable to agree on responsibility-sharing, EU member states are focusing on returns and reducing new arrivals.
Such measures, adopted in Denmark, have also inspired British ministers to introduce new restrictions.
Copenhagen has removed incentives to attract people to the country and increased deportations of illegal migrants, Reuters recalls.
Senior British Home Office officials were sent to the Danish capital earlier this year to familiarize themselves with the country's asylum policy after Denmark reduced the number of asylum applications to its lowest level in 40 years and successfully expelled 95% of rejected asylum seekers.
Danish legislation has also allowed Danish authorities to seize valuables from refugees since 2016 to cover the cost of support. si.
At the same time, Copenhagen remains a party to the European Convention on Human Rights, an international treaty that has angered some on the British right, who say it hinders London's efforts to deport illegal migrants.