Refugees will only have one chance to appeal their deportation in new plans announced by the Home Secretary in her bid to stop the UK being ‘the destination of choice in Europe’ for people smugglers.
Shabana Mahmood set out ‘hard-headed’ measures to overhaul asylum policy to MPs on Monday, and make it easier for the Government to remove people with no right to be in the country.
People granted asylum in the UK will only be allowed to stay in the country temporarily, with their status reviewed every 30 months, shortened from five years.
She promised: ‘We will remove people we have not removed before, including families who have a safe home country they can return to.
‘We will remove people to countries where we have, until recently, paused returns.’
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Ms Mahmood said there were ‘around 700 Albanian families living in taxpayer-funded accommodation having failed their asylum claims’ despite it being a safe country to return to.
The Home Secretary told the Commons: ‘In recent months, we have begun voluntary removal of failed asylum seekers to Syria once again, however, there are still many failed asylum seekers here from Syria, most of whom fled a regime that has since been toppled.
In a fiery moment, the Home Secretary said she has regularly been called racist slurs and told to ‘go back home’ after Lib Dems accused her of ‘stoking division’.
Ms Mahmood said: ‘I wish I had the privilege of walking around this country and not seeing the division that the issue of migration and asylum system is creating across this country. Unlike him, unfortunately, I am the one that is regularly called a f****** P*** and told to go back home.
‘It is I who knows, through my personal experience and that of my constituents, just how divisive the issue of asylum has become in our country.
‘This system is broken, and it is incumbent on all Members of Parliament to acknowledge how badly broken the system is and to make it a moral mission to fix this system so that it stops creating the division that we all see,’ she added.
Eight of the changes the Home Office wants to make to immigration
New core protection offer: Refugee support will be limited to what is required by international obligations, moving away from permanent protection.
Improved age assessment: Trials of AI and facial age estimation technology.
Ending hotel accommodation: Commitment to exit all asylum hotels by the end of Parliament, moving towards large sites (including military sites).
Reduced right to public funds: Access to taxpayer funded benefits will be prioritised for those making an economic contribution; a consultation is planned for 2026.
No automatic family reunion: Family reunion rights will not be automatic for those on core protection; stricter requirements will apply.
Longer path to settlement: No indefinite settled status until 20 years in the UK, with requirements to be set in a future consultation.
Shortened Leave to Remain: Initial leave reduced from five years to 30 months, renewable only if protection is still needed.
Revoking duty to support: The legal obligation to provide support to destitute asylum seekers will be replaced with a discretionary power.
Asylum seekers will have ‘just one opportunity’ to make their claim, and one to appeal, Shabana Mahmood has said, ‘ending the merry-go-round of claims and appeals that frustrate so many removals’.
She told MPs the appeals backlog stood at 51,000 cases in March.
She said: ‘Cases with a low chance of success will be fast-tracked, and claimants will have just one opportunity to claim and one to appeal, ending the merry-go-round of claims and appeals that frustrate so many removals.’
Ahead of the debate, Sir Keir Starmer said the asylum system was not designed to cope with a ‘more volatile and insecure’ world or a situation where asylum seekers travel through ‘multiple safe countries before seeking to cross the English Channel by boat’.
He said: ‘If we want to see fewer channel crossings, less exploitation and a fairer system with safe and legal routes, we need an approach with a stronger deterrent effect and rules that are robustly enforced.’
But Ms Mahmood was forced to deny media reports that border officials would remove refugees’ jewellery at the borders, as she said she would investigate ways immigrants with assets can pay back into the system. She insisted: ‘We will not – and never will – seize people’s jewellery at the border.
‘We’re not going after their sentimental items like wedding rings and so on.’
Kemi Badenoch had said the Government’s new asylum plans are ‘baby steps, but positive’. However, she warned that any plan that does not involve leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is ‘doomed to fail’.
The Conservative leader said: ‘I am pleased that she is bringing forward measures to crack down on illegal immigration. It’s not enough, but it is a start…
‘I do want to praise the new Home Secretary, she’s bringing fresh energy and clearer focus to this problem, and she has got more done in 70 days in the job than her predecessor did in a year.’
Reform MP Danny Kruger joked he would ‘welcome’ her into his party and ‘recognises the rhetoric’ she used.
After many comparisons to Reform from opposition and her own backbenches, Ms Mahmood replied: ‘I’m sorry to find that the Reform Party is rent-free in so many people’s heads, I can assure you it’s nowhere near mine.’
The Refugee Council estimated that continually reassessing refugee status over ten years would cost £872 million.
The charity’s chief executive Enver Solomon, said: ‘What’s being forgotten here is that behind these proposals are men, women and children who have survived war, persecution and unimaginable loss, and who arrive in the UK with almost nothing.
‘These reforms sound tough, but they won’t fix the real problems in the asylum system. Instead, they risk creating more delays, more stress and more inhumane treatment for the very people the system is meant to protect.’
Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Director, said: ‘Forcing refugees into endless short-term applications, denying visas to partners and children and stripping away support for people who would otherwise be destitute will only deepen chaos, increase costs and hand greater power to people smugglers.
‘This is headline chasing, not problem solving – a Government bowing to anti-immigrant, anti-rights politics instead of standing up for the basic principles that protect us all.’
The latest Home Office figures show 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025.
This is the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001
A contributing factor has been the continued flow of small boats across the English Channel, with almost 40,000 people making the crossing so far in 2025.