Home Office announces change to asylum loophole exploited by criminals

Home Office announces huge changes to asylum loophole exploited by criminals

Foreign criminals, failed asylum seekers, or immigration offenders will have to prove they have a "genuine and subsisting relationship".

Add us as preferred source

Migrants who have families while living in the UK illegally will have their human rights claims ignored, under bombshell new plans. Shabana Mahmood has told asylum officials that “no weight” should be given to Article 8 claims when the family unit has been established, whilst they did not have the legal right to be in the UK.

And the new legislation will place a greater burden on relatives living together. Foreign criminals, failed asylum seekers, or immigration offenders will also have to prove they have a “genuine and subsisting relationship”.

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. Read our Privacy Policy

• Keir Starmer just slapped Ed Miliband round the face and took away his pocket money
• Huge Brexit betrayal after Starmer hands EU students £30,000 fee discount

It comes amid concerns that sex offenders, paedophiles, drug dealers and killers are avoiding deportation using Article 8 despite not being in their children’s lives.

The Home Office said: “No weight should be given to family or private life established by a person when they are in the UK and require leave to enter or remain in the UK.”

Home Office documents added: “A representative sample of Home Office decisions made in 2022 shows that 39% of first-time in-country family and private life grants were made to illegal entrants and 38% to overstayers, indicating that immigration breaches are not being given sufficient weight in the public interest test.

“There are provisions in the current legislation to allow for less weight to be given to certain types of private and family life developed while an individual has a temporary or unlawful status in the UK.

“These provisions do not apply to all types of family life.

“Individuals who have exhausted their appeal rights are also able to continue accruing family and private life rights in the UK despite the expectation being that they should leave the UK.

“This encourages people to delay and evade immigration action from being taken against them, motivating non-compliance and rewarding people for misuse of the system."

But Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “These changes are minor tweaks which will make no difference whatsoever in practice. Fine-tuning Article 8 and modern slavery laws was tried before and did not work.

“The only way to end legal immigration is to pull out of the ECHR and modern slavery treaty entirely, which will enable all illegal immigrants to be deported within a week of arrival.

“These gimmicks from Labour will not move the needle and are simply performative - just like their previous absurd claim to smash the gangs.”

Migrants will face monthly bills for their accommodation, with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood willing to deduct the cash from benefit payments.

Those given the right to work – once their asylum claims have been accepted – will also be told to begin paying back their costs.

Refugees will be barred from gaining settlement rights if they have not paid back the money.

Under the current plans, migrants are expected to pay around £10,000.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “The cost of asylum accommodation on the British taxpayer is too high.

“We have already reduced asylum costs by £1bn, but it is also right that we ask those who can contribute to do so.

“Receiving asylum support is a right, but it is also a responsibility. Once people can contribute and repay the generosity of the British people, we expect them to do so.”

The Government said it spent £4 billion on accommodation and support for asylum seekers last year, and the Home Office estimates the average cost per person per night of accommodating asylum seekers is £23.25 in dispersal accommodation and £144 in hotels, while subsistence payments range from £9.95 to £49.18 per person per week.

The Home Secretary will have the power to adjust the charges and thresholds, as officials desperately scramble to slash the £4 billion bill for the asylum system.

The powers needed to recover the costs will be set out by the Immigration and Asylum Bill when it is introduced to Parliament on Tuesday.

Labour is ramping up efforts to close asylum hotels by moving migrants into houses, flats and bedsits in communities across the country – and former military sites.

While ministers publicly say they want to move asylum seekers into ex-military sites, the Home Office’s accommodation providers insist houses, flats and bedsits remain the “core” of their plans to house migrants.

Almost 70,000 asylum seekers are living in dispersal accommodation - including large HMOs.

And another 10,000 asylum seekers are set to be moved into properties in London, the southern counties and Wales, the CEO of Clearspring Ready Homes revealed.

And hundreds could be given beds in properties which are being shared with local authorities for social housing.