Labour announces plans to tighten UK asylum laws and restrict welfare access
In most European Union countries, asylum is typically granted for an indefinite period, effectively for life.
However, plans are now emerging across the bloc to extend the qualifying period for granting permanent residency—for example, moving from the five years common in many countries to ten years, as recently adopted in Denmark.
Even the Labour government in the United Kingdom (UK), led by Keir Starmer, which faces a persistent challenge from irregular migration via the English Channel, is now seeking to emulate the Danish approach. This situation has been intensified by the far-right Reform UK party, led by Nigel Farage, currently polling strongly. Reform UK promises a radical revision of the UK asylum laws if it gains power, specifically by eliminating the right for migrants to qualify for permanent settlement in the UK after just five years.
Similar to other Western and Nordic European nations, the Keir Starmer Labour government is currently toughening its UK asylum laws. This follows increasing political pressure from the rise of the local nationalist right, represented by the party of Brexit architect Nigel Farage.
For several months, opinion polls have consistently shown Labour trailing Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party. This summer saw numerous protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers, and a large far-right rally in London in mid-September attracted an estimated 150,000 people.
The Labour government announced plans this week to compel refugees to return to their country of origin once it is officially considered safe, and to eliminate automatic access to welfare benefits.
Furthermore, under the proposed Immigration reform, asylum seekers will lose the automatic right to state housing and social welfare benefits. A new proposal also suggests that legal residents may have to wait 20 years before they can apply for permanent settlement. In this context, the government has promised to reduce the number of migrants making irregular crossings of the English Channel in small boats.
An agreement was reached with Paris this summer to facilitate the return to France of migrants who arrive in the UK via these boats. Nevertheless, since January 1st, 39,292 people have landed on the English coast, a figure that surpasses the 2023 total (36,816).
The new measures, though influenced by Danish policy, are less severe than those proposed in 2022 by the successive Conservative governments of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak. Those plans aimed to relocate individuals identified by the UK as illegal immigrants or rejected asylum seekers to Rwanda, in Africa, for processing and potential resettlement. Although the Rwandan state accepted the plan in exchange for significant funds, critics raised concerns at the time that such deportation measures risked comparison with historical tragedies.
Unsuccessful asylum applicants would have been detained in Rwanda and prohibited from returning to the UK. The UK had committed to investing in a development fund for Rwanda and financially supporting the migrants' relocation and accommodation costs.
The first flight under the previous Conservative plan received High Court approval and was scheduled for June 14, 2022, but a last-minute interim measure by the European Court of Human Rights halted the entire process. The proposal for a 20-year waiting period for a legal migrant to apply for permanent residency, while a significant change in policy, represents an unprecedented period on the European continent.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
