Britain Announces New Immigration Routes for ‘Genuine Refugees’

Britain’s Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on Monday announced plans to reopen a closed immigration scheme, describing the initiative as an opportunity for “genuine refugees” rather than migrants who use “illegal means” to reach the country.

Speaking at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, Mahmood indicated she might water down some of her previous pledges to get tougher on immigration rules, following criticism from within her own party.

Mahmood referred to her own background as the daughter of Pakistani immigrants in the speech, in which she drew a distinction between illegal and legal immigration.

“There is nothing fair about a lack of control at our borders. It is not fair that criminal gangs determine who comes to this country,” she said.

“It is not fair that those with a genuine need of protection cannot find a safe and legal way to claim asylum.”

Mahmood said that about a quarter of those allowed into Britain under the reopened scheme are expected to be either Afghan women and girls fleeing Taliban rule or Palestinians escaping the war in Gaza.

‘Open Borders Policy’

Writing on X, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage accused the government of wanting to “mass import” more people under the guise of “international obligations.”

“Britain is not obligated to take in more migrants,” he said, adding that those admitted would not be allowed to stay under a Reform government. He challenged Prime Minister Andy Burnham to call an election to see if he could get a mandate for what he termed Labour’s “open borders policy.”

Rupert Lowe, who leads the populist Restore Britain party, said on X that the concept of “compassion” in the immigration system had “gone too far.”

Lowe, who left Reform following an internal dispute, said that if elected, his party would “abolish the asylum system, and deport anyone who arrives through this new scheme.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said on X that Mahmood had “caved” to pressure from her own party by “watering down her already weak immigration plans.”

The Right to Family Life

Badenoch, like Reform and Restore, has said she would take the UK out of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) if her party comes to power. 

Criticizing Labour’s plan to allow international refugee agencies to send Afghan women to the UK, the Conservative leader wrote: “The right to family life means they can bring all the men in their family over. A Palestinian woman recently brought her extended family of 17 to the UK.”

Some Labour lawmakers and party members have expressed unhappiness with the tone of Mahmood’s rhetoric about reducing arrivals of immigrants. 

Housing and Communities Secretary Angela Rayner told The Times of London earlier in September that the home secretary’s proposal to lengthen the time before granting permanent leave to remain was unfair because it was retrospective and would “change the goalposts” for migrants already in the UK. 

Rayner, who is on the left of the party, said she was particularly concerned about the impact on care workers, many of whom came to the UK following former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s migration reforms, particularly the granting of visas for care workers.

“Carers were asked to come to this country to care for some of our most vulnerable and then we changed the goalposts years down the line. I think that’s very disruptive,” Rayner said.

Mahmood told the conference that plans to increase the length of time immigrants must spend in the UK before qualifying for indefinite leave to remain were under review to ensure “fairness” before being finalized later this autumn. 

Under changes to immigration rules either recently introduced or under consideration, it will take most immigrants 10 years, and in many cases longer, before they are granted the permanent right to stay in the UK. 

Mahmood said the government would “come to a position that balances fairness for those who came here legally, and fairness to British citizens across this country.”

The reopened system will allow refugees selected by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to come to the UK under more favorable conditions than for most other immigrants, needing just five years’ residence to obtain the permanent right to remain.

Palestinian applicants will be referred by a separate U.N. body, the International Refugee Assistance Project. 

Under previous Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Labour had discontinued a similar program to take in Afghans in 2024. The new scheme will be subject to an annual cap, expected to be in the hundreds initially but later to rise to the “low thousands.”

Potential rises in the cap will be linked to future declines in the level of illegal immigration, the government said.

Official figures show the numbers entering the country illegally on small boats in 2026 are about 42 per cent lower than the previous year, with a total of 18,609 migrants arriving this way so far.

Growing Public Concerns

Concerns over the safety of women and girls and the cultural impact of high levels of immigration have led to high-profile protests and campaigns.

An independently funded inquiry led by Rupert Lowe concluded in June that as many as 250,000 predominantly white, working-class girls could have been sexually exploited by gangs of men of mainly Pakistani origin, going back to the 1950s. The figure was based on extrapolations of the number of known victims in three towns, and while this methodology has been challenged, the government is conducting its own inquiry into the scandal.

The Home Office caused a public outcry in August when it produced a booklet for asylum claimants telling them not to rape women or children, and outlining the meaning and age of consent.

Public anger has also grown in recent years over the cost of illegal immigration to the public purse.

Mahmood described the reopened scheme as a means to disincentivize illegal small-boat crossings. 

In the 12 months to June, 38 percent of illegal immigrants who claimed asylum were granted permission to remain in the UK, according to Home Office figures. That number is likely to rise as some of those initially refused appeal their decisions. Since 2007, the proportion eventually allowed to stay has averaged about 20 percentage points higher than the initial figure.

A YouGov opinion poll of voter intentions from Sept. 29 puts Reform at 25 percent, just ahead of Labour at 24 percent, with the Conservatives at 19 percent.

Reform consistently led Labour in the polls for more than a year until Burnham took over from former Prime Minister Keir Starmer, leading to a slight bounce for the ruling party.