The Home Secretary has pledged to save the asylum system “for generations to come” as she announced the opening of new safe routes for refugees.
Inspired by a Canadian scheme that has settled 400,000 people in the country since 1979, the new safe routes will allow communities and some “trusted” universities to sponsor refugees to come to the UK.
A separate route allowing employers to sponsor refugees is also expected to open next year.
The Home Office did not say how many refugees it expected to use the new routes, but it did say the system would “operate at a much higher capacity” than the current UK Resettlement Scheme that provides a route for only a small number of people each year.
View 2 ImagesAndy Burnham has faced calls to ease restrictions on immigration(Image: Getty Images)
However, Shabana Mahmood also outlined changes to human rights laws that will make it easier to deport people in the country illegally.
The new law will tighten the definition of “family” for the purposes of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), restricting it to immediate family members only.
The Home Office said the new definition would prevent situations such as one that prevented the deportation of a convicted domestic abuser from Poland because he acted as a “father figure” to his nephew.
Ms Mahmood said: “I will open new legal routes for genuine refugees, while closing loopholes that have been too often abused. My goal is simple: to ensure we have an asylum system not just today, but for generations to come.
“Britain has always offered sanctuary to those fleeing war and persecution. But this system only survives if the public trusts that it is fair, controlled, and not open to abuse.”
However, the announcement comes amid uncertainty over whether Ms Mahmood will remain in post once Keir Starmer exists Downing Street.
Her planned changes to rules governing indefinite leave to remain (ILR) have drawn criticism from some Labour MPs, with Mr Starmer’s likely successor Andy Burnham facing calls to scrap them.
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Responding, Leonie Ansems De Vries, Deputy Chair of the Community Sponsorship Alliance, said: “The government’s commitment to open applications this autumn is a vital step toward building a protection system with integration and public consent at its core.
“We urge the government not to draw eligibility criteria so narrowly that it stifles the very public goodwill that makes sponsorship work. A scheme that lets communities decide who they sponsor will always mobilise more energy and reach more people in need.”