UNHCR Criticises UK Plan That Could Make Refugees Wait 30 Years for Settlement

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, has said a UK government plan to make refugees wait up to 30 years before they get permission to settle raises significant concerns. The agency said the plan was likely to be detrimental to refugees.

The strategy was unveiled earlier this week by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood. She announced a softening of aspects of her immigration plans, but kept some of the rigorous rules drawn up by her office last year.

Mahmood introduced a carve-out for care workers to allow them to apply for indefinite leave to remain after five years, but maintained rules making those who arrived by irregular means such as small boats wait up to 30 years.

Some refugees can reduce the upper limit of 30 years if they enter work or study, but there is a 10-year penalty for those who arrive on small boats or concealed in lorries rather than arriving via safe and legal routes. The government has significantly reduced the legal routes, and the ones it has announced will be accessible only to a small minority of people seeking sanctuary.

UNHCR welcomed the legal routes but said an extended qualifying period for settlement for refugees raises significant concerns, particularly alongside the introduction of short-term stay arrangements and changes made last year that would preclude many from ever accessing citizenship.

Taken together, the agency said, these measures are likely to be detrimental to refugees' sense of security, belonging and stability, and to impact their ability to contribute and become part of their new communities.

UNHCR added: Refugees are not migrants; they have fled their countries because they cannot rely on their protection nor safely return home. For refugees, safety means more than a grant of asylum, and settlement has an important role to play.

Kamena Dorling, director of policy at the Helen Bamber Foundation, also raised concerns about the 30-year rule. She said the foundation was deeply alarmed and disappointed by the government's announcement on earned settlement, which will cause profound and lasting harm to refugees, including survivors of torture, trafficking and other forms of extreme cruelty.

Dorling said extending the qualifying period for settlement is simply inhumane. She said it will not deter people fleeing war, persecution, torture and violence, who are fighting for their lives and seeking safety, and that when legal routes are so severely limited, people will continue to take desperate measures to reach safety.

She added that the policy will punish people who have already endured unimaginable harm, leaving those recognised as refugees facing decades of uncertainty, insecurity and fear.