The British Labor government defended on Sunday its vast reform intended to combat irregular immigration, including the restriction of the protection granted to asylum seekers, ensuring that this ultra-sensitive subject is “tearing apart” the country.
Two key measures of this plan, the detailed presentation of which is to be held on Monday in Parliament, were unveiled on Saturday evening by the Ministry of the Interior.
Among them, the reduction of the protection granted to refugees, who will be “forced to return to their country of origin as soon as it is deemed safe” and the removal of automatic access to social assistance for asylum seekers.
Questioned on Sunday on the BBC and Sky News, Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood defended these first measures as a whole.
Born into a family originally from Pakistan, she told the BBC that while “immigration is absolutely part” of her life experience, she feels “a moral duty” to fight irregular immigration.
“It is a moral duty for me, because I see that illegal migration is tearing our country apart,” she said.
According to her, this immigration “divides communities, people see enormous pressure in their communities and they also see a system that is failing, where people can (…) take advantage of the system,” she continued.
Coming to power in July 2024, the Labor government of Keir Starmer is under almost daily pressure to curb the arrival of migrants.
Work or study
For several months, he has been well ahead in the polls by Nigel Farage’s Reform party, which has made the migrant issue its main subject.
This summer, numerous demonstrations took place in front of hotels housing asylum seekers and a demonstration organized by the far right in London in mid-September brought together up to 150,000 people according to the police.
In this context, the government has promised to reduce the number of migrants crossing the Channel aboard makeshift boats. Without success so far.
Since January 1, 39,292 people have landed on the English coast after this perilous crossing, a figure which exceeds the total for the year 2024 (36,816).
Also on the BBC, Ms Mahmood “rejected” any borrowing from the far right.
In the United Kingdom, the restriction of refugee protection was a measure previously defended by Nigel Farage, who announced that if he came to power, he would force migrants – including those already regularized – to apply for a visa every five years.
The new system, largely inspired by the restrictive Danish model, will reduce the duration of their stay from five years to 30 months, and will quadruple, from five to twenty years, the time necessary to apply to become a permanent resident.
Refugees who wish to become permanent residents more quickly “will have to work or study,” according to the ministry.
As for social assistance – housing, financial allowances – these will no longer be automatic. The government wants to eliminate this aid “for those who have the right to work and who can provide for themselves”.
“I know that I have to convince people throughout the country, not just in Parliament (…) that these reforms can work,” admitted the minister.
The first step will undoubtedly be to convince the left wing of the party, which has already said it is opposed to such changes.
At the end of June, the government was forced to back down on its bill aimed at cutting allowances for disabled people following the mobilization of around a hundred deputies from its camp.
© Agence France-Presse