By Ellie Cook
Publication Date: 2025-11-16 17:12:00
The UK will introduce the “most significant changes” to its asylum application process in recent times to combat “the enormous pressure on local communities”, the country’s Home Secretary has said.
Why is it important
The current Labor government is fighting the rise of the right-wing Reform Party and strong criticism of immigration from opposition Conservatives. He has hardened his stance on illegal immigration to the country, particularly by small boats traveling from France.
London announced a pilot scheme with Paris in August based on a “one in, one out” policy, designed to deter Channel crossings by returning migrants who arrive legally in the UK and accept the same number of approved asylum seekers.
What to know
Under the new rules, people receiving subsidies like in the UK will have to wait two decades before they can begin the process of settling permanently in Britain. This is four times the current five-year waiting period.
Refugees who have homes or family in the UK may also have to return to their home countries if their home nation is deemed safe. This will be subject to review every two and a half years.
Asylum seekers who are eligible to work, or those who have committed crimes, will not be able to claim financial support or accommodation paid for by the British taxpayer. Mahmood said on Sunday that just under 10 per cent of people currently in asylum accommodation are able to work in the UK.
The Home Secretary said the new rules will “restore order and control at our borders” and reduce the number of “illegal arrivals” coming into the UK. “Genuine refugees” who arrive in the country legally will still be able to access the “sanctuary,” he said.
Mahmood sent British officials to Denmark to examine Copenhagen’s immigration controls in October, particularly the Nordic country’s policy on temporary stays, British broadcaster Sky News reported in early November.
The Home Secretary said 400,000 people had applied for asylum in the UK in the last four years, with 100,000 of them paid for by British taxpayers. “Illegal migration is creating division throughout our country,” Mahmood said. on sundayYeah. “This is a broken system.”
A total of more than 111,000 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, an increase of 14 per cent on the previous year, according to the Home Office. This is the highest figure ever recorded, according to the UK government.
The United Kingdom received an average of 16 asylum applications per 100,000 residents in 2024, according to experts at the University of Oxford.
The Home Office said on Friday it had “prevented 20,000 Channel crossings” by working with French officials and disrupted hundreds of gang activities in the last financial year.
Mahmood said the current government had overseen “record levels of immigration raids and arrests.”
US President Donald Trump and his administration have overseen wave after wave of raids carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents across the United States. Trump has pledged to carry out the “largest mass deportation program in history” and in June, despite protests, ordered authorities to “expand efforts to detain and deport illegal aliens in America’s largest cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, where millions upon millions of illegal aliens reside.”
The Department of Homeland Security said Saturday it was launching a new campaign, dubbed “Operation Charlotte Network,” in the North Carolina city of Charlotte targeting “criminal illegal aliens.” Local officials in the Democratic-run city criticized the operation.
What people say
British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood He told the BBC on Sunday: “What the new reforms will do is change the generations-old assumption that shelter provided to refugees can lead very quickly to permanent settlement.”