People granted asylum in the UK will have to wait 20 years before they can apply for permanent settlement, under plans to be announced by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on Monday.
The biggest shake-up of asylum policy comes as the government seeks to reduce small boat crossings and asylum claims.
Under the plans, people granted asylum will only be allowed to stay in the UK temporarily, their refugee status will be reviewed regularly and those whose home countries are deemed safe will be asked to return.
Currently, refugee status lasts five years, after which people can apply for indefinite leave to remain.
Now the Home Secretary wants to reduce the initial five-year period to two and a half years, after which refugee status will be reviewed periodically.
But it plans to significantly lengthen the time it will take to gain permanent residency in the UK from five years to 20.
Mahmood told the Sunday Times that the reforms were “essentially designed to say to people: don’t come to this country as an illegal immigrant, don’t get on a boat.”
He continued: “Illegal migration is destroying our country,” adding that the government’s task was to “unite our country.”
“If we don’t fix this, I think our country will become much more divided,” he told the newspaper.
The policy has been copied from Denmark, where a government led by the centre-left Social Democrats has presided over one of the strictest asylum and immigration systems in Europe.
In Denmark, refugees are given temporary residence permits, usually for two years, and actually have to reapply for asylum when they expire.
And Mahmood’s new approach will certainly face opposition from some Labor MPs.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson said it was “right that the government is looking at new ways to fix the messy asylum system created by the Conservatives”.
He added that Labor “should not fool itself into thinking that these measures are an alternative to processing applications quickly so we can weed out those who have no right to be here.”
Enver Solomon, executive director of the Refugee Council, described the government’s plans as “harsh and unnecessary” and said they “will not deter people who have been persecuted, tortured or seen their relatives killed in brutal wars.”
