In 2023, 67,337 applications for asylum in the UK were made, relating to 84,425 individuals. 33% asylum applications were refused at initial decision in 2023. The race riots that swept the UK in the summer of 2024 have shone a light on the extremely precarious situation that many asylum seekers and refugees in the UK are facing. Children and young people are particularly vulnerable.Thousands of teenage asylum seekers in the UK are thought to be spending up to a year out of education in a “no man’s land” due to schools being reluctant to accept them if they arrive after the start of the school year, according to a report by Refugee Education UK (REUK), with young asylum seekers left vulnerable to victimisation, trafficking and exploitation.
The Labour party, in its general election 2024 manifesto, asserted that the asylum “system needs to be controlled and managed and we need strong borders” and committed to creating a new Border Security Command, with hundreds of new investigators, intelligence officers, and cross-border police officers, in order to tackle the criminal gangs who are smuggling asylum seekers across the English Channel in small boats. Labour pledged to “restore order to the asylum system so that it operates swiftly, firmly, and fairly; and the rules are properly enforced,” including by: hiring additional caseworkers to clear the backlog of asylum claims; setting up a new returns and enforcement unit, with an additional 1,000 staff, to fast-track removals to safe countries for people who do not have the right to stay in the UK; negotiating additional returns arrangements to speed up returns and increase the number of safe countries that failed asylum seekers can be sent back to; and working with international partners to address the humanitarian crises which lead people to flee their homes, and to strengthen support for refugees in their home region.
Minnie Rahman, Chief Executive of migrant and refugee charity Praxis has said that the scenes in summer 2024 of “asylum accommodation set alight in Rotherham and widespread destruction by the far right have been terrifying and deeply traumatising,” adding that “we must also realise that the anti-migrant feeling didn’t come from nowhere. When from the top down, our policies treat migrants as “other”, and the government uses them as a scapegoat for policy failures in housing, public services and the economy, the prejudice inevitably filters down.” Following the summer riots, 54 refugee organisations wrote to Labour Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, calling for urgent protections to be put in place for asylum seekers living in hotels who may be at risk from further far-right attacks. REUK, meanwhile, have highlighted the very limited number of programmes aimed at supporting the integration of refugee children, and have called for the government to include asylum seekers and refugees in its Children’s Wellbeing Bill, which aims to tackle school absences, and to introduce a strategy for speeding up the integration of these children into the education system. Diana Sutton, Director of the Bell Foundation, notes that schools feel “unprepared and unsupported” due to funding cuts and an “English as an additional language policy vacuum”.
This symposium will provide local authorities, charities, policymakers and other key stakeholders with an opportunity to discuss the state of asylum and refugee policy and the new Labour government’s plans for reforming the system, dissect British attitudes towards irregular migration, and assess what should be done to create a more humane system which adequately supports and protects asylum seekers and refugees seeking sanctuary in the UK.
Programme
- Learn about current trends and drivers in the flow of irregular migrants to the UK and existing government policy in this area
- Assess the new Labour government’s plans for processing asylum claims, managing the flow of irregular migrants, and tackling cross-channel people smuggling gangs
- Evaluate the treatment of and support provided to asylum seekers and refugees in the UK and how this could be improved
- Develop strategies for better protecting, reassuring and providing practical and mental health support for asylum seekers and refugees following the summer 2024 UK race riots
- Exchange views on the scope for increasing the number of legal routes available to asylum seekers wishing to settle in the UK and how asylum applications can be simplified and made more accessible
- Consider UK refugee numbers in an international context and the UK’s status as an international outlier with regard the indefinite detention of irregular migrants
- Discuss the role that greater international cooperation and burden sharing can play in managing the flow of irregular migrants and supporting asylum seekers
- Examine attitudes in the UK towards asylum seekers, refugees and irregular migrants and the role that education, the media, social media and politicians play and should play in this regard
To register for the briefing, please click here.
