Britain announces largest asylum policy overhaul

The UK has announced its most extensive asylum reforms in decades, replacing automatic routes to permanent settlement with temporary protection reviewed every 30 months.

The package, presented to the House of Commons on Monday by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, will create a 20-year path to permanence, for people arriving illegally and a 10-year route for those entering through resettlement schemes.

"What the new reforms will do is change that generations-old assumption that sanctuary provided to refugees can very quickly lead to permanent settlement and all of the rights that go alongside that. We will be changing that to a more temporary process, and the situation will be assessed every two and a half years," Mahmood said on BBC's 'Sunday with Laura Kuensberg' programme.

Officials said refugee status will be withdrawn if conditions in a person’s home country are judged safe during any review period.

"If your country becomes safe in that intervening period and you are remaining on this essentially core protection model, you will be returned to your country because we see countries that have started off in conflict and people have moved in order to escape that conflict becoming safe," she added. 

What will end?

Temporary protection is the centrepiece of the reforms, modelled on Denmark’s system introduced in 2019.

Statutory asylum-seeker support introduced under European Union law in 2005 will end. Housing and weekly allowances, currently provided automatically, will become discretionary. Support will be withdrawn from those considered able to work but who do not, as well as from people who break the law, according to officials.

Legislation will also narrow the interpretation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Only immediate family relationships will count in immigration appeals, and relationships formed after a removal order is issued will be excluded. Ministers said the number of appeals citing family life has increased sharply in recent years, including by foreign national offenders.

A new independent appeals body will replace the current system and impose a 24-week deadline for decisions for people in asylum accommodation and foreign criminals. The First-tier Tribunal has a backlog of more than 51,000 asylum appeals, with average waits of 53 weeks. Officials said this delay is now the principal reason thousands remain in hotel accommodation at public expense.

Government costs

In 2024-25, the Home Office spent £2.1 billion (about $2.6 billion) on hotel accommodation, roughly £5.77 million (about $7.2 million) a day. A hotel place costs around £170 a night compared with about £27 for other accommodation types. More than 32,000 people were in hotels in March 2025.

Mahmood also announced potential visa sanctions on Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo if they do not cooperate on accepting their nationals who have no right to remain in the UK. The bans would apply to tourists, business travellers and VIPs.

Labour’s move follows growing public concern over immigration and the ascent of Reform UK, which polling in September put at 34%, 12 points ahead of Labour. Reform retained 89% of its 2024 voters and drew 39% of former Conservative supporters.

How many people are claiming asylum?

More than 109,000 people claimed asylum in the UK in the year to March 2025, a 17% rise on the previous year and 6% above the 2002 peak. Appeals have risen sharply, from 7,000 in 2022 to 42,000 at the end of 2024.

Home Office officials visited Copenhagen earlier this year to study Denmark’s rules, which include temporary two-year residence permits, restricted family reunification and requirements such as language tests and 3.5 years of full-time work before refugees may seek permanent residence after eight years.

Charities warned the UK’s reforms risk creating a “hostile climate” for people fleeing war and persecution. More than 300 organisations said proposals such as conditioning settlement on volunteering were “immoral and impractical”. The Refugee Council argued that people fleeing danger do not compare asylum systems before leaving their countries.

Mahmood said the reforms were needed to “protect public consent” for offering sanctuary, warning that without significant change the system would continue to fuel division.

Legislation on Article 8 and the new appeals body will follow. Caseworker guidance will be rewritten to implement discretionary support, and the Home Office will create new systems for 30-month refugee status reviews. The government intends to launch capped safe and legal routes for people “fleeing peril”, with details still to be set out.

Progress will be measured through hotel occupancy levels, appeal processing times and small-boat arrivals, which surpassed 39,000 in 2025, more than the nearly 37,000 recorded in 2024. Ministers said the aim is to reduce demand, increase returns and restore what they called “order and control” to the asylum system.

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