UK government poised to overhaul its asylum system as a political storm
brews over migration
[November 17, 2025]
By BRIAN MELLEY
LONDON (AP) — The British government plans to tighten its asylum system
in a series of sweeping changes modeled after Denmark that aims to
reduce immigration and quell the political storm over migrants making
dangerous English Channel crossings to enter the country without
authorization.
The policy changes to be announced by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on
Monday in the House of Commons are yet another an attempt to make the
U.K. less attractive to those seeking refuge and easier to remove
migrants who don't qualify for asylum.
Mahmood said it was a moral mission to control the borders and reunite a
divided country on the flashpoint issue that has helped fuel the rise of
the hard-right Reform UK Party, though as the daughter of migrants she
denied the ruling center-left Labour Party was adopting far-right
talking points.
“People can see huge pressure in their communities and they can also see
a system that is broken, and where people are able to flout the rules,
abuse the system and get away with it,” Mahmood told the BBC.
Successive governments have failed to halt the flow of migrants to
British shores through a variety of efforts that included the previous
Conservative government’s plan to send arrivals to Rwanda for asylum
processing that never took effect. That policy was scrapped last year
when Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who leads the Labour Party, was
elected last year and vowed to crack down on migrant smuggling gangs.
More than 39,000 migrants have arrived by boat in the U.K. this year,
surpassing the almost 37,000 who arrived in 2024, according to the
latest Home Office figures. The number, though, is still shy of the
nearly 40,000 who had arrived at this point in the year in 2022, which
recorded the highest number ever.
Although the numbers arriving by small boat have risen, they represent a
fraction of total immigration, with most people entering the U.K.
legally, on visas. Net migration — the number of people entering the
U.K. minus those who left — topped 900,000 in the year to June 2023,
according to official figures. The surge was driven in part by hundreds
of thousands of people fleeing war in Ukraine and China’s clampdown in
Hong Kong.
Net migration stood at 431,000 in the year to June 2025, according to
the Office for National Statistics, down 49.9% from 860,000 a year
earlier.
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Migrants push a small boat in an attempt to reach Britain, Thursday,
Nov. 6, 2025 in Gravelines, northern France. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois
Badias)
The issue of migration became more politically volatile this summer
as protests that occasionally became violent were held outside
hotels housing asylum seekers after a migrant was arrested — and
later convicted — of sexual assault for trying to kiss a 14-year-old
girl.
The new reforms include revoking the U.K.'s legal duty, introduced
under EU law in 2005, to provide support for asylum seekers,
allowing the government to withdraw housing and weekly allowances
that are now guaranteed. Benefits could also be denied to people who
have a right to work but don’t and those who break the law, or work
illegally.
Refugee status will also be regularly reviewed to see if people can
safely be repatriated.
Safe ways will be designated for migrants to claim asylum without
having to pack into overcrowded inflatable rafts and risk crossing
the choppy channel.
Chris Philp, a Conservative member of Parliament, criticized the
policy for “tinkering” at the edges. He said the changes wouldn't
have the impact of the scrapped Rwanda policy and said every migrant
entering the country without authorization should be deported within
a week.
“I don’t object to it in principle, but it’s not going to work,"
Philp told the BBC. "It’s gimmicks. It’s rearranging the deck chairs
on the Titanic. It’s not going to stop people getting on boats.”
The Home Office said the new policy was modeled Denmark's success at
reducing its asylum applications to the lowest point in 40 years and
removing 95% of those who sought to settle there.
Denmark was once a haven for refugees. But as Europe and the Western
world have struggled to deal with mass migration from people fleeing
conflict, famine and poverty, it has imposed strict limits on
newcomers that has drawn international criticism for discouraging
people seeking refuge.
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