Key facts
- UNHCR said the extended qualifying period for settlement raises significant concerns and is likely to be detrimental to refugees.
- Refugees who arrive by irregular means face a wait of up to 30 years before they can apply for settlement.
- Mahmood created a carve-out letting care workers apply for indefinite leave to remain after five years.
- Some refugees can shorten the 30-year limit through work or study, but a 10-year penalty applies to those arriving by small boats or concealed in lorries.
- Kamena Dorling of the Helen Bamber Foundation said extending the qualifying period is simply inhumane.
The United Nations refugee agency told the Guardian on November 4 that UK government plans to make refugees arriving by irregular means wait up to 30 years before they can apply for settlement raise significant concerns and are likely to be detrimental.
The strategy was unveiled earlier this week by home secretary Shabana Mahmood, who softened some aspects of her immigration plans while keeping strict rules drawn up by her office last year. Mahmood introduced a carve-out allowing care workers to apply for indefinite leave to remain after five years, but maintained the requirement that those arriving by irregular means, such as small boats, wait up to 30 years.
Some refugees can reduce the upper limit by entering work or study, but a 10-year penalty applies to those who arrive on small boats or concealed in lorries rather than through safe and legal routes. The government has reduced the latter sharply, and although it has announced some legal routes, the Guardian reported that only a small minority of people seeking sanctuary will be able to access them.
UNHCR welcomed the legal routes but said an extended qualifying period raises significant concerns, particularly alongside short-term stay arrangements and changes made last year that would preclude many from ever accessing citizenship. It said the measures are likely to be detrimental to refugees' sense of security, belonging and stability, and to affect their ability to contribute to their new communities. The agency added that refugees are not migrants, having fled countries where they cannot rely on protection or safely return home.
Kamena Dorling, director of policy at the Helen Bamber Foundation, said she was deeply alarmed and disappointed by the announcement on earned settlement, which she said will cause profound and lasting harm to refugees, including survivors of torture and trafficking. She said the government had an opportunity to change course after receiving extensive evidence but instead doubled down, and that extending the qualifying period is simply inhumane. Dorling added that the policy will not deter people fleeing war and persecution and will leave those recognized as refugees facing decades of uncertainty.