London – Britain’s Labour government has unveiled a tough plan  to tackle illegal migration amidst criticism from its own party’s MPs.

Addressing the House of Representatives on Monday, Home Minister Ms Shabana Mahmood  said , “”If we fail to deal with this crisis, we will draw more people down a path that starts with anger and ends in hatred.”

Under the new plan, people granted asylum in the UK will only be allowed to stay in the country temporarily, with their status reviewed every 30 months.

The scheme mirrors the approach in Denmark, where refugees get two-year permits and must reapply when they expire, BBC reported.

Refugees will also need to be resident in the UK for 20 years before they can apply for permanent residence or indefinite leave to remain – up from the current five years.

Meanwhile, the government will create a new “work and study” visa route, and encourage refugees to find employment or begin education in order to switch onto this route and earn settlement more quickly.

Only those on this work and study route will be able to sponsor family members to join them in the UK.

New independent appeals body

Minister Mahmood, who is a qualified Barrister,  announced plans to end the process of allowing multiple appeals in asylum cases and replacing it with a single, consolidated appeal where all grounds must be raised at once.

A new independent appeals body will be created, staffed by trained adjudicators and supported by early legal advice, she said.

Only those with immediate relatives, like children or parents, will be able to remain in the UK in future.

A greater weight will be given to the public interest in removing foreign offenders and people who entered illegally.

The government will also narrow the application of Article 3 of the European Commission on Human Rights (ECHR), which bans inhuman or degrading treatment.

Ending housing and financial support

Minister Mahmood said the government will revoke the legal duty to provide asylum seekers with support, ending guaranteed housing and weekly pay.

Support would still be available for “those who are destitute” but will be withheld from those with permission to work who do not, and from people who break the law or defy removal directions.

Under plans, asylum seekers with assets will be required to contribute to the cost of their accommodation. 

This echoes Denmark’s approach where asylum seekers must use savings to pay for their accommodation and authorities can seize assets at the border.

The home secretary will set an annual cap on arrivals via these routes, based on local capacity. But those arriving on the legal routes will be on a streamlined ten-year route to settlement, the Home Office said.

Visa penalties

Visa penalties will be applied to countries who fail to co-operate with the returns policies, including an “emergency brake” on visas for countries with high asylum claims until they takes back its citizens who are in the UK illegally, the Minister said.

The UK has already identified three African countries it plans to penalise if their governments do not improve co-operation on removals.

The governments of Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo will have a month to start co-operating before a sliding scale of sanctions are imposed, the Home Office said on Monday.

The government is also planning to roll out new technologies to strengthen enforcement.

Alongside this, the government plans to introduce a digital ID by 2029. This will allow more accurate right-to-work checks by employers and make it harder for illegal workers to use fraudulent documents, officials said.