Name: Refugees to face 20-year wait to settle permanently in UK under asylum reforms | BBC News
Uploaded: 2025-11-17T16:46:54.000Z
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People granted asylum in the UK will have to wait 20 years before they can apply to settle permanently.

The Home Secretary confirmed the proposed change to the BBC.

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The full plans are due to be announced on Monday.

The current period is five years, after which refugees typically receive indefinite leave to remain.

Shabana Mahmood said the change would end a golden ticket for asylum seekers.

Our political correspondent Ian Watson has more.

More than 200 people crossed the channel in small boats on Friday.

39,000 have made the journey so far this year.

The Home Secretary has described this as a crisis at our borders and it should do whatever it takes to stop it.

Shibana Mahmoud will set out our plans to the Commons tomorrow.

And what the Home Office says will be the biggest shift in policy towards refugees since the Second World War.

The hope is it will stop some particular potential asylum seekers from coming here.

Currently successful asylum seekers whose claims are accepted are given refugee status.

They're allowed to stay in the UK initially for five years, then they can apply for permanent residence.

The initial period of protection will be cut in half to two and a half years, and

it will then take 20 years to gain permanent residence.

Many refugees won't be here for 20 years because.

Because as soon as their home country is considered safe, the Home Secretary says, they'll be sent back.

This is strongly supported by some in their party who face an electoral threat from reform.

When asylum seekers are given the right to remain in this country, they should know from the outset that there's an expectation that they will return to their country of origin at the point that it is safe to do so.

And the Home Secretary is consulting on further changes, including withdrawing accommodation and financial allowances from asylum seekers found to be working illegally or engaging in criminal activity.

But the Lib Dem say she should be putting more effort into clearing the asylum backlog so that those whose claims are rejected can be removed more quickly.

Both Reform UK and the Conservatives are urging the Home Secretary to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, which they say hampers deportations.

Though the Conservative leader, Kelly Badenoch, said she was willing to work with Glaber if the Government proved it was serious in reducing the number of asylum seekers in the uk.

Some in Shabana Mahmood's own party think she's going too far and scaring off left wing voters.

But she seems determined to signal to those who are worried about immigration that she's listening.

So the Home Secretary has been doing the rounds on our political programs.

And our political correspondent Billy Kember has been across the war Koonsberg program.

What did, what new material did the Shadow, the Home Secretary give?

Arguably, it's this fact that they will, asylum seekers will have to be here for 20 years before they get any kind of a permanent settlement.

Yes, a huge shake up to the asylum system.

The Home Office has called it the biggest shake up since the Second World War.

And Shabbat mood this morning on Sunday with Laura Kuenzberg explaining some of the details of that scheme.

The biggest one, as you say, an increase in the length of time that someone applying for asylum and receiving asylum in this country will have to live here before they can apply for permanent settlement.

That will go up to potentially 20 years from the five years under the current system.

And Shabana Mahmoud was asked about the specifics of that and about an attendant change, which is that if someone has come from a country that was deemed unsafe, that is then deemed safe during, during that 20 year period, they would then be returned home.

It is an issue that is dividing our country.

And I see this polarization all over the country, including in my own constituency.

We have a system that is out of control, it's unfair and is putting huge pressure on communities.

A lot of political pressure around these policies.

A very hot button issue for the government, very important issue in the polls for a lot of voters on immigration and one that successive governments have tried and, and

It's not just outside of the Labour Party, it's within the Labour Party too that Shabana Mahmoud is going to come under pressure on this already criticism from the left of the party that this is adopting the talking points of the populist right.

That's something that she rejected this morning when speaking to Laura Kuenzberg and criticism too from the right, from the reform UK and from the Tories that this doesn't go far enough.

The Shadow Home Secretary, the Conservative MP Chris Philp, was also on the show.

He was asked whether he agreed with these changes.

He said he did agree with the principle of making someone who has received refugee status receive that on a temporary basis rather than a permanent one.

But these changes, in his view, didn't go far enough.

I've been to those camps last August, just a couple of months ago.

I've spoken to migrants there and they think they can come here and work illegally.

They think their chances of getting removed are virtually zero.

Because under this Labour government, 95% of people who've crossed the channel have been allowed to stay.

So no doubt some heated political debates ahead on this issue, both within the Labour Party and across the chamber in the Commons.

We'll see more details of these changes when Shabana Mahmoud speaks in the Commons tomorrow, expected to get some further details.

She's indicated to to on changes the government wants to make to the Article 8 Right to Family life, which they view has been unduly blocking up cases in the courts.

And we shall see whether they can get legislation through to make these changes.

But Shabana Mahmood will hope that voters now feel that Labour are getting a grip of this issue.

And that's, of course, Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which is a big talking point in this country at the moment.

Billy, as always, thank you so much for turning that around so quickly.

Billy Kember there, our political correspondent.

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Refugees to face 20-year wait to settle permanently in UK under asylum reforms | BBC News

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