Shabana Mahmood’s move to make refugee status temporary will be challenged in the courts, The Independent can reveal.
Under sweeping changes to the asylum and immigration rules in March, home secretary Shabana Mahmood changed the amount of time a refugee can stay for in the UK, saying that her reforms offered “a compassionate but controlled asylum system”.
Asylum seekers’ cases will now be reviewed every 30 months, after which they could be sent back to their country of origin. Previously, refugees with successful asylum claims were given a five-year visa and could apply to stay in the UK indefinitely after the five-years.
Now charity Asylum Aid has launched legal action against the Home Office over the decision to cut the grant of refugee leave from five years to two and a half.
Asylum Aid will argue that the changes are unlawful and will cause serious harm by increasing instability and undermining refugees’ integration into the UK.
The charity has sent a pre-action letter to the government that says that the home secretary failed to adequately assess the impact of her policy change on refugees, including on children and other vulnerable groups.
Asylum Aid also say that the Home Office has not properly considered the impact on the asylum system of the constant re-applications every 30 months. They also say that the government has breached its public sector equality duty and obligations regarding child welfare.
The charity warn that the shorter visa allowances will make it harder for refugees to build lives in the UK, will be a risk to stable employment and housing, and will harm refugees’ mental health as they face the constant anxiety of not knowing if they can stay in Britain.
It will now be up to the courts to decide whether the legal challenge can proceed.
Ms Mahmood has taken inspiration from Denmark for her radical immigration reforms. In Denmark, most people who have been granted asylum are only allowed to stay in the country temporarily. When a country is deemed safe, the Danish government has the power to withdraw or refuse renewal of protection, even where the individual has been resident for several years.
Denmark also imposes conditions applied to people seeking settlement rights, such as being in full-time employment.
Noor, an Afghan refugee who sought asylum in the UK due to fear of persecution from the Taliban, was one of the first to be impacted by the changes to asylum. Noor, whose name has been changed for safety reasons, was granted refugee status in April this year with two and a half years’ leave to remain in the UK.
Her sister, who was granted refugee status before the policy changed, received five years.
Noor, who previously worked in a bank in Afghanistan before the Taliban takeover, said she was “deeply disappointed and concerned” about the decision, saying: “As a refugee woman, having fled difficult circumstances, as a single mother of a young child, I was recognised to be someone in need of protection. [But] this decision creates significant uncertainty in our lives.”
She said it was “very difficult” to plan long-term and was worried about how she would be able to find work with a short-term visa. “It makes me feel I am constantly on edge,” she said.
Alison Pickup, chief executive of Asylum Aid, said: “This policy risks trapping refugees in a cycle of insecurity, requiring people who have already fled persecution to repeatedly prove their right to safety.
“Reducing protection from five years to two and a half years makes it harder to rebuild lives, find stable work and contribute to communities. Refugees need certainty and dignity, not a system that keeps them in limbo. We are taking this action to ensure the UK asylum system remains fair, humane and lawful.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Britain’s asylum system is a relative outlier in Europe. Across the continent, asylum claims are falling, while here they have been rising.
“We must therefore tackle the incentives that draw people on illegal and unsafe routes, including across the Channel. Protection will always be provided to those who face danger in their own country. However, for those who have travelled here illegally, if they can safely return home, they will have to do so.
“At the same time, we will open new, safe and legal routes into the country for those in need, with a faster path to lifetime settlement rights.”
