British Lord High Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Shabana Mahmood arrives for a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, in September. EPA/ANDY RAIN
Nov. 16 (UPI) — Britain’s home secretary Shabana Mahmood plans to unveil plans to overhaul the country’s asylum policy Monday after declaring that illegal immigration is “tearing the country apart.”
The new measures will include a two-decade long wait period after people who are granted asylum are allowed to settle in the country permanently, the BBC reported.
The new plans will also require that people who are granted asylum will have their refugee status reviewed regularly, and those whose countries are deemed safe will be required to return. Mahmood said Sunday that she sees reforming Britain’s immigration system as a “moral mission.”
Conservatives would deport undocumented migrants “within a week,” while Liberal Democratic Party leaders have called for asylum seekers to have the right to work.
Mahmood said the changes are designed to make the country less attractive to illegal immigrants, and lead to fewer dangerous small boat crossings across the often turbulent English Channel, and asylum claims.
She said the new plans will also end visas for people from Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo if those countries do not quickly improve their cooperation on removing people from Britain.
These countries have been selected “for their unacceptable low co-operation and obstructive return processes,” the BBC reported.
Enver Soloman, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said the 20-year wait period for permanent residency would “leave people in limbo for many, many years.
“We need a system that is controlled and fair, and the way you do that is you make decisions fairly, in a timely fashion, and if someone is found to be a refugee they go on and they contribute to our communities and they pay back,” he said Sunday on BBC Breakfast.
At least 109,343 people claimed asylum in Britain in the last 12 months, a 17% increase over the year before, according to government figures. At least 1,069 migrants have arrived in the country in the last 7 days, the data show.
Mahmood is set to unveil her plans in the House of Commons on Monday.