Asylum rights will be slashed for migrants who arrive in Britain illegally under major reforms announced today.
Priti Patel will introduce a ‘two-tier’ system in which those who come via unauthorised routes – such as crossing the Channel in small boats – are given far fewer privileges.
Even if they have a legitimate claim to refugee status, migrants who arrive illegally will be granted permission to stay in this country only temporarily. They will be barred from claiming most welfare benefits.
And their ability to bring relatives here to join them, currently permitted under ‘family reunification’ rights, will be curtailed.
At the same time, efforts to remove Channel migrants who could have claimed asylum in safe countries they travelled through – such as France – will be stepped up.
By comparison, successful asylum seekers who applied in advance to come here through legal routes, such as the United Nations’ refugee agency, will be rewarded.
Around 150 migrants, including a young girl, crossed the English Channel yesterday and were brought to Dover in Kent
Home Secretary Priti Patel, pictured on March 15, will unveil details of the biggest asylum system shake-up for a generation
A map shows the points along the coast where migrants have landed in the UK over the past year after crossing from France
They will win permission to come to Britain immediately and will be allowed to stay here indefinitely. The Home Secretary will unveil full details later today of the biggest shake-up of the asylum system for a generation.
Her scheme, dubbed the ‘New Plan for Immigration’, will be controversial because it separates asylum claims into two ‘classes’. Refugee charities claim many migrants have no choice but to come here by illegal routes.
Miss Patel said: ‘Under our New Plan for Immigration, if people arrive illegally they will no longer have the same entitlements as those who arrive legally, and it will be harder for them to stay.
‘If, like over 60 per cent of illegal arrivals, they have travelled through a safe country like France to get here, they will not have immediate entry into the asylum system – which is what happens today.
‘I make no apology for these actions being firm, but as they will also save lives and target people smugglers, they are also undeniably fair.’
Other elements in the wide-ranging package announced today will include streamlining the asylum appeals process, and setting up reception centres to replace hotel accommodation and ex-Army barracks used during the pandemic.
It will also be made harder for asylum seekers to make unsubstantiated claims of persecution.
An independent body will be set up to determine the true age of applicants suspected to be posing as children, as revealed by the Daily Mail last week.
Jail sentences will be increased for people smugglers and foreign criminals who sneak back into the country after being deported.
A new humanitarian route will be created to make it easier to bring individuals to Britain if they face imminent danger in their homeland – as in the case of Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian who spent eight years on death row on blasphemy charges before she was acquitted in 2019.
Miss Patel said: ‘We will stop the most unscrupulous abusing the system by posing as children, by introducing tougher, more accurate age assessments.
‘Profiteering from illegal migration to Britain will no longer be worth the risk, with new maximum life sentences for people smugglers.’
This morning, Miss Patel told Sky News she has not ruled out seeking agreements with the likes of Gibraltar and the Isle of Man to process asylum seekers.
Migrants are helped ashore on the Border Force vessel ‘Hunter’ as they walk onto Dover Harbour in Kent yesterday
She said: ‘All the time people are being trafficked and smuggled through illegal routes, we as a Government have a duty of responsibility to consider all options.
‘We will look at third country removal and we will also do that looking alongside bilateral agreements.
‘As part of this consultation we will put all options on the table in terms of working with third countries, and countries like Denmark already exploring options like this, and we will continue to explore bilaterally options in terms of returning and removing people that have come to the United Kingdom illegally.’
Migrants who come to the UK illegally and whose claims are found to be genuine will receive a new ‘temporary protection’ status – lasting 30 months – instead of the automatic right to settle here.
During that period they will be ‘regularly reassessed for removal from the UK’.
For example, if the political situation improves in their home country and they are no longer at risk, they could be sent back.
They will have ‘no recourse to public funds’, which means they will no longer be able to claim benefits such as income support, housing benefit or tax credits. Access to the NHS will remain.
A Home Office spokesman said it was a ‘step change’ towards tackling the ‘collapsing’ system.
‘Access to the UK’s asylum system will be based on genuine need of refuge, not on the ability to pay people smugglers,’ he added.
More than 8,500 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats last year, compared with just 1,850 in the previous 12 months.
At the end of December a record 64,041 asylum seekers were receiving taxpayer-funded support, a 37 per cent increase in just three years.
Asylum seekers currently receive £39.63 a week for each member of their household, plus free accommodation if they need it. Asylum support now costs the taxpayer just under £1billion a year.
Enver Solomon, of the Refugee Council, said: ‘The Government is effectively creating a two-tier system where some refugees are unfairly punished for the way they get to the UK.
‘This is wholly unjust and undermines the UK’s long tradition of providing protection for people regardless of how they have managed to find their way to our shores, who have gone on to become proud British citizens contributing as doctors, nurses and entrepreneurs to our communities.’
He added: ‘The reality is that when faced with upheaval ordinary people are forced to take extraordinary measures and do not have a choice about how they seek safety.
‘All refugees deserve to be treated with compassion and dignity, and it’s a stain on ‘Global Britain’ to subject some refugees to differential treatment.’