The British Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, has announced that the government will suspend new applications for refugee family reunion in what she described as an “overhaul” of the asylum system.
Labour is struggling to address public anger at what is seen as an out-of-control immigration system, while Nigel Farage’s Reform Party – which has said it will deport hundreds of thousands of migrants if it wins power – pulls ahead of them in polling.
Ms Cooper said that the temporary measure was needed to address pressures on local authorities, and to stop criminal gangs using family reunification as a “pull factor”.
“We need to address the immediate pressures on local authorities, and the risk from criminal gangs using family reunion as a pull factor to encourage more people onto dangerous boats,” she said.
“Therefore we’re bringing forward new immigration rules this week to temporarily suspend new applications under the existing dedicated refugee family reunion route,” she told the House of Commons, adding that refugees would now be subject to the same family migration rules as everyone else until a new framework was in place.
The Home Secretary said that refugee families arriving in the UK and entitled to homelessness assistance were putting pressure on local authorities that was “not sustainable”.
“Even just before the pandemic, refugees who applied to bring family to the UK did so on average more than one or two years after they had been granted protection, long enough for them to be able to get jobs or find housing, or be able to provide their family with some support,” she said.
“In Denmark and Switzerland, currently, those granted humanitarian protection are not able to apply to bring family for at least two years after protection has been granted. But here in the UK now, however, those applications come in on average in around a month after protection has been granted, often even before a newly granted refugee has left asylum accommodation.
“As a consequence, refugee families who arrive are far more likely to be seeking homelessness assistance,” Ms Cooper said. “And some councils are finding that more than a quarter of their family homelessness applications are linked to refugee family reunion. That is not sustainable.”
Cooper’s announcement was criticised by some commentators as not going far enough. The government is struggling to cope with the arrival of migrants via small boats in the English Channel, with the highest numbers on record – 29,003 – arriving so far this year.
The UK has seen angry protests against the use of hotels to house asylum seekers, most notably in Epping, Essex, where the government went to court to successfully overturn a temporary injunction sought by the local council to block asylum seekers from staying at the Bell Hotel.
Local MP for Epping, Neil Hudson, said that the situation in regard to the Bell Hotel was increasingly distressing and untenable”, and urged the Home Secretary to “do the right and safe thing” and close the hotel urgently.