Children could face deportation from the UK under Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s tough new plans to overhaul the asylum system.
Mahmood’s proposals aim to toughen Britain’s approach to “many families of failed asylum seekers” who “continue to live in this country, receiving free accommodation and financial support, for years on end.”
A Home Office policy paper states that such “hesitancy” will end in a bid to tackle what the government describes as “perverse incentives,” including cases where children are put on small boats crossing the Channel to later “exploit” protections and “thwart removal” even if asylum claims are refused.
Under the plans, families will initially be offered cash to return to their home countries. If they refuse, they may face enforced deportation.
The Home Office policy paper, titled *Restoring Order and Control*, said: “Our hesitancy around returning families creates particularly perverse incentives. To some, the personal benefit of placing a child on a dangerous small boat outweighs the considerable risks of doing so. The Government will offer all families financial support to enable them to return to their home country. Should they refuse that support, we will escalate to an enforced return. We will launch a consultation on the process for enforcing the removal of families, including children.”
The proposals, which also include making it harder for refugees to settle permanently in the UK and an overhaul of human rights laws, have already sparked a backlash from Labour MPs. Critics say the plans could further inflame opposition at a time when Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership is under pressure from the party’s soft left, which has urged him not to match the tough stance on asylum taken by Reform UK.
Reform previously advocated for large-scale deportations but recently stepped back from including children in its plans to remove 600,000 people it claimed are living illegally in the UK or would arrive via small boats in the future.
The policy paper also states that Home Office support could be removed from families with children under 18 if their asylum claims have failed, appeals have been exhausted, and they are not co-operating with a deportation. It warns that continuing support for these families “creates a perverse incentive to remain in the UK without status, undermining the integrity of the system.”
“Therefore, as part of the aforementioned consultation, we will consult on commencing measures in the 2016 Immigration Act which will allow us to remove support from families who do not have a genuine obstacle to leaving the country,” the document added.
