Shabana Mahmood will announce a new legal route for refugees that prioritises Afghan women and girls and Palestinians, unfreezing a scheme that will put the most vulnerable refugees on a faster path to permanent status. The change marks a shift in Mahmood’s approach to asylum seekers after the abrupt closure of the Afghan resettlement scheme last year and changes that will keep refugee status under constant review for two decades. The home secretary is to say the changes will show there is fairness in the immigration system to support the most vulnerable refugees and that a balanced system will “unlock the inherent generosity of this country”.
However, immigration experts and refugee charities have said the numbers who will be eligible are too small to deter asylum seekers crossing the Channel in small boats. The reopening of the scheme is likely to attract criticism from the right, especially as women and girls and people with disabilities are the most likely to be dependent on the welfare state. Reform UK and the Conservatives are also likely to raise questions about security checks – which the Home Office says will be carried out – after the Sunday Times revealed that a former Hamas bodyguard had been granted asylum in the UK and was recently arrested on suspicion of being part of a terrorist plot.
Mahmood will tell the Labour conference on Sunday that she will reopen the UK resettlement scheme, which was in effect suspended for two years, though never formally closed. The home secretary will say that a tougher migration system, combined with a new scheme for the most vulnerable, will be the best way to ensure there is still broad consensus for helping refugees. A fair society is what unlocks the very best of us.
Because when people think this country is fair, they are more open and generous to others. When this country feels unfair, people turn inwards. They grow less willing to tolerate difference,” she will say.
But I also know this process must be capped and controlled, and communities must be ready and able to welcome those who come here. Under the scheme, potential refugees will undergo security and criminality checks. Those who arrive via the scheme will have a far more generous route to permanent settlement – granted indefinite leave to remain, which will give them a five-year path, in contrast to the constant review of status for those who arrive via irregular routes such as small boat crossings.
The home secretary will also formally open another scheme announced earlier this year allowing community sponsors from next month to apply to bring refugees to build a new life in the UK. A sponsored work route for refugees is expected to follow in the spring. Home Office sources said the plan would be to begin with numbers in the hundreds and grow to the low thousands as levels of illegal migration fall.
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