People who have been granted asylum in the UK will have to wait 20 years before they can apply for permanent residency. At the moment that is still five years. This is contained in plans that will be announced on Monday by British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, several report British media.
Under the plans, people who are granted asylum will only be allowed to stay in the United Kingdom temporarily. Their refugee status is regularly reviewed and if the government decides that the home country is safe enough, the asylum seeker must return. According to the plans, refugee status will also be shortened from five years to 2.5 years.
Mahmood said against The Sunday Times that the reforms are “essentially intended to make it clear to people: don’t come to this country as an illegal migrant, don’t get on a boat.” According to the minister, illegal migration is “tearing the country apart” and it is the government’s job to “unify the country.” “If we don’t solve this, our country will become much more polarized,” Mahmood said.
Danish model
The policy has been adopted from Denmark, where a government led by the centre-left Social Democrats has introduced one of the strictest asylum and immigration systems in Europe.
In Denmark, refugees are given temporary residence permits, usually for two years, and in practice they have to reapply for asylum when this period has expired. However, the period for applying for permanent residence is eight years, and not twenty.
The twenty-year term that the British government wants to introduce will apply to people who have entered the country illegally. Asylum seekers who legally enter the United Kingdom will soon have a ten-year period to apply for a permanent residence permit.
Enver Solomon, director of the Refugee Council, called the government’s plans “harsh and unnecessary” and said they “will not deter people who have been persecuted, tortured or have lost family members in brutal wars.”
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