People granted asylum in the U.K. may be required to pay back around £10,000 — more than $13,000 — for housing and basic living assistance before they can qualify to apply for settlement, officials said Monday.
The proposal arrives as immigration continues to dominate Britain’s political debate, regularly appearing near the top of voters’ concerns in national polling.
According to the government, the proposed repayments would be means-tested and apply only to adults earning above a set income level. Officials said protections would be built in to ensure people are not driven into severe hardship, but the specific income threshold and how the policy would be enforced have not yet been released.
Asylum seekers in Britain could be asked to repay the government more than $13,000 before becoming eligible to apply for settlement. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
The government said the rules would not apply retroactively, and children would be exempt from any repayment requirement.
“Receiving asylum support is a right, but it is also a responsibility,” Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said. “Once people can contribute and repay the generosity of the British people, we expect them to do so.”
Mahmood said the latest package of reforms is intended to ease the financial pressure on taxpayers.
Officials said repayments would be limited to adults deemed able to afford them. (Geography Photos/Universal Images Group)
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The Home Office also said over the weekend that it aims to remove 45,000 more people with no legal right to remain and foreign criminals within the next decade, in addition to the tens of thousands already being removed on a yearly basis.
The center-left Labour Party has increased efforts to curb both legal and illegal immigration as it seeks to counter the rising popularity of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which has vowed to deport up to 600,000 asylum seekers and other people whose claims or appeals have failed.
“Mass migration has changed this country, certainly in many of our cities, literally beyond recognition,” Farage told News Agency last week. “We’ve not been selective about who’s been able to come into the country. That is a major contributory factor.”
Shabana Mahmood, Britain’s home secretary, said the reforms aim to reduce the burden on taxpayers’. (Getty Images)
Refugee advocates and migration researchers have criticized the proposal, arguing it could punish people who fled persecution and questioning whether many refugees would earn enough to repay the proposed sum. Critics have also warned that tying repayment to settlement could create uncertainty for people trying to rebuild their lives in the UK.
The Labour Party has faced internal divisions over how tight its immigration policy should be, and the party is up against further overall uncertainty after its leader, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, announced last week that he will resign.
