Tuesday briefing: Inside Shabana Mahmood’s new UK asylum reforms
The Guardian – World
theguardian.com
Summary
In today’s newsletter: As the home secretary details reforms to the asylum system, a look at the challenges Labour faces – and what better story could be told about immigration Good morning. Last night home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, set out further planned reforms to the asylum system. A new means-tested scheme, which will see asylum seekers ordered to pay about £10,000 each for their state-funded living costs or be denied settled status in the UK, has been condemned by refugee charities for placing a tax on refugees fleeing war, torture and famine. Both proposals are part of the immigration and asylum bill, which will go before MPs today as the home secretary faces both ways on what she’s described as a “moral mission”. Soon after, she described illegal immigration as “tearing our country apart” – language which was immediately rebuked as inflammatory . Mahmood’s proposals include speeding up the removal of families, including children, whose asylum claims have been refused, curbing certain claims made under the European convention on human rights, axing the legal duty on councils to provide asylum seeker support and strengthening age assessments. Earlier this year, Mahmood made refugee status temporary, to be reviewed every 30 months. It’s often overlooked, Katwala tells me, that the government has the power to make significant changes to immigration policy without resorting to legislation. This reflects a fall across Europe, prompted by “tough external border policies by the European Union”, says Katwala. But the report argues an expanded routes/returns model would not only put the smugglers out of business but encourage broader cooperation between European neighbours that could ultimately “save the principle of asylum and refugee protection from the pressures of populism”.
From the source
In today’s newsletter: As the home secretary details reforms to the asylum system, a look at the challenges Labour faces – and what better story could be told about immigration Good morning. Last night home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, set out further planned reforms to the asylum system. A new means-tested scheme, which will see asylum seekers ordered to pay about £10,000 each for their state-funded living costs or be denied settled status in the UK, has been condemned by refugee charities for placing a tax on refugees fleeing war, torture and famine. Over the weekend, briefings suggested Mahmood also plans to speed up the opening of safe and legal routes to claim asylum, like employer sponsorship, as she bids to quell backbench critics, including former deputy leader Angela Rayner – a belated acknowledgment that the absence of such routes has forced many to make the perilous Channel crossing in those small boats that have become a totem for public and political anxieties around immigr
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Published by The Guardian – World on theguardian.com
