LONDON

The UK government on Monday unveiled a sweeping package of asylum reforms that will significantly tighten access to refugee status and increase the use of enforced removals for families.

In a newly published 32-page dossier, Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned that rising global instability and record levels of migration have placed the system under “severe strain,” prompting what he describes as a “stronger deterrent” approach to border control.

In a foreword to the document, Starmer said the “world has changed,” pointing to increased conflict and a sharp rise in global migration.

“Our asylum system was not designed to cope with this,” he noted, adding that current rules did not anticipate people “travelling through multiple safe countries before seeking to cross the English Channel by boat.”

He argues that the UK’s existing regime “is a significant pull factor” and “more permissive than the European mainstream,” saying the country now needs “a stronger deterrent effect and rules that are robustly enforced.”

While insisting the UK remains a “decent, compassionate, tolerant country,” he said confidence in the system must be restored so that those “genuinely fleeing danger and persecution” can continue to be welcomed.

Families to face enforced returns, refugee status to be tightened

The dossier notes that the government does not “currently prioritize the return of families,” warning that hesitancy in doing so can create “perverse incentives.”

To address this, the government says it will offer financial support to help families return to their home countries and will pursue enforced removals if they refuse. A consultation will be launched on how to carry out family removals, including those involving children. Children will not be separated from their parents during deportation.

Under the reforms, successful asylum seekers will need to wait 20 years—up from five—before applying for permanent residency.

The initial period of leave granted to refugees will be reduced from five years to 30 months.

Financial support for asylum seekers will also be curtailed.

While those at risk of “destitution” are currently entitled to assistance, the government says support will be removed from people who have the right to work but choose not to.

A new body will be established to speed up asylum appeals, after more than 51,000 cases were left unresolved as of March.

Current asylum system 'feels out of control and unfair'

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the action is needed because “the world is a more volatile and more mobile place.”

Addressing the House of Commons, she said that, while some people arriving illegally are “genuine refugees,” others are “economic migrants seeking to use and abuse our asylum system.”

Mahmood told MPs the “burden that has fallen on this country has been heavy,” highlighting that “400,000 have sought asylum here in the last four years.

"Over 100,000 people now live in asylum accommodation, and over half of refugees remain on benefits eight years after they have arrived," she noted.

“To the British public who foot the bill, the system feels out of control and unfair,” she said. “It feels that way because it is.”

The home secretary warned that high levels of irregular migration have “destabilized communities” and left the UK “a more divided place.”

“There will never be a justification for the violence and racism of a minority,” she said. “But if we fail to deal with this crisis, we will draw more people down a path that starts with anger and ends in hatred.”

Mahmood criticized the previous Conservative government, accusing it of having “wasted precious years on their failed Rwanda plan.”

She said the government has two main goals: “Firstly, to reduce illegal arrivals into this country, and secondly, to increase removals of those with no right to be here.”