In the asylum shuffle, refugee status becomes transient.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said that any asylum seeker granted refugee status in the UK will only be granted temporary protection.
The action is expected to infuriate some members of Labour’s left wing and is one of the biggest reforms to the UK’s asylum system in a generation.
Since the reforms only alter current regulations, they will take effect on Monday for adults and accompanied minors seeking refuge without a parliamentary vote.
Asylum seekers’ cases will be examined every 30 months under the new regulations; if it is judged safe to do so, they may then be returned to their home country.
Existing regulations that grant five years of protection and the ability to bring family to the UK still apply to people who have previously filed an asylum application.
While the administration looks into a long-term policy for this group, unaccompanied minors will also continue to be protected for another five years.
It is unclear that several of Mahmood’s other suggested reforms will take effect until later this year because they would require complete parliamentary review before becoming legislation.
As part of this, the average immigrant’s time to obtain permanent status in the UK has doubled from five to ten years. It can take 20 years in the case of refugees.
The Social Democrats, Labour’s sister party, defeated an electoral threat from a populist right-wing party by strengthening its own immigration policies during Mahmood’s visit to Denmark last week.
Instead of providing refugees with a seven-year protection period and a path to permanent residence, Denmark now reviews their applications at least every two years.
The government is “changing an age-old assumption of what it means to be a refugee -moving from a permanent to a temporary status,” Mahmood told the BBC during her fact-finding trip to Copenhagen.
She explained that as a result, “it will be less attractive for illegal migrants to come to our country” and she wished to “change the calculus in the minds of the people about to get on a boat” , stating that “We will have a much more difficult system for illegal arrivals.”
However, after the Green Party won the once-secure seats of Gorton and Denton, some in her own party have already accused her of “aping” Reform UK and questioned more stringent immigration laws.
Zack Polanski, its leader, has charged that Labour was repeating the far-right’s immigration rhetoric.
Re-examining the status of refugees who were successful, not unsuccessful, asylum seekers would be expensive and divert the Home Office’s attention from expediting the process, Imran Hussain, of the Refugee Council charity, told the BBC.
Additionally, he cautioned that it would be more difficult for refugees to maintain employment and integrate if they felt they “had one foot in the departure lounge” despite the fact that their asylum petition had been approved.
However, in an interview with the BBC at the British Embassy in Copenhagen, the home secretary stated that it is important to not undervalue her changes.
She stated: “Honestly, I really believe these reforms are existential for us as a country and we have a real problem with a lack of control in our border system and what that does to public trust and confidence in politics – but also in the ability of the state to actually just do anything at all.”
Mahmood is “trying to do some very difficult things,” according to Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, who also stated that the UK must reform its refugee policies to make sure they are “in line with reality today as opposed to reality from many years ago.”
In response to enquiries following a speech on Monday, Badenoch stated that Mahmood still has “a lot more” to do to reform immigration and asylum.
She continued: “But what I’m not going to do is criticise someone who is actually taking some tough decisions against the interests of her backbenchers.”
During her trip to Denmark, Mahmood visited a reception center in a rural area sixteen miles from the country’s capital to examine the dormitory accommodations for newcomers.
She praised the weather, saying it was basic, even austere, but warm even in Denmark’s below-freezing temps.
She highlighted her unwavering commitment to relocating asylum seekers from hotels to comparable accommodations in the United Kingdom.
She also admitted that if Labour failed to fulfil its promise to stop using asylum hotels, it might lose the next election.
“This is an important priority,” she stated. I anticipate that the British people will vote appropriately if we break our pledge to them.It entails losing the authority to run your nation’s government.
“Un-British”
However, there are some distinctions as well as similarities with Denmark.
In addition to being significantly smaller and less diversified than the UK, it also does not have to deal with the problem of tiny boats carrying prospective migrants to its borders.
The Conservatives and Reform UK both claim that unless Mahmood is prepared to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights, the Channel crossings will not be halted.
Although she is working to change its interpretation to permit the removal of more asylum seekers, she will not do that.
The number of migrants who crossed the Channel in small boats in 2025 was 41,472, over 5,000 more than the year before.
When asked if she should tell people that this Parliament will not solve the issue of illegal immigration, Mahmood said it was “going to be difficult” but that she is committed to bringing the numbers down.
This week, the home secretary will deliver a speech outlining the “progressive case” for immigration regulation.
The ideas to alter permanent settlement rights for migrants already residing here were criticised by nearly 40 Labour MPs last month for “un-British” and “moving the goalposts” nature.
They have cautioned that it might exacerbate the skills gap in the UK, especially in the care industry.