As more and more Britons have had enough and are participating in protests against mass immigration, and Nigel Farage and his party Reform UK are now larger than both the Tories and Labour combined in the polls, pressure on the government led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer is increasing. However, the measures are seen as obligatory and too little, too late.

The British government is halting new applications to a system that allows asylum-seeking migrants to bring their family members to the UK, but only temporarily. According to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, the measure, which comes into effect this week, will mean that asylum seekers face the same restrictions as other migrants hoping to bring their families to join them in the UK.

Cooper says that the rules were designed many years ago to help families separated by war, conflict, and persecution, but they are now incompatible with Britain’s neighbors and restrictions are needed.

In other European countries such as Denmark and Switzerland, asylum seekers must wait for two years before applying to reunite with their families, giving them time to find work and housing to support them upon arrival. In the UK, however, applications come in on average within about a month, often before the migrant has even left the asylum accommodation.

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This generally means that someone must earn at least £29,000 per year and provide suitable accommodation, while their family member may need to demonstrate basic English language skills.

Further reforms to family reunification routes are said to be presented this year with the aim of introducing changes by spring. Cooper states that the government also plans to change the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights, an international treaty on human rights that has been used by lawyers trying to stop the deportation of rejected asylum seekers.

Yvette Cooper. Photo: UK Home Office, CC BY 2.0

Wants to Leave the European Convention

In recent weeks, there have been increasing calls, not only from the right but also from some former Labour ministers, to either withdraw from the convention or suspend parts of it. The government is adamant that it will not do so, but is reviewing how the treaty’s rights to family life are applied to immigration cases. Reform UK wants the country to leave the European Convention.

Conservative Party shadow home secretary Chris Philp says that adjusting the rules for family reunification is not enough to address the scale of the UK’s border security crisis.

– If this government was serious about addressing this problem, they would know that small adjustments here and there are not enough, he says.

Deport to Rwanda

Philp urges the government to revive the scrapped Rwanda plan, which aimed to deter small boats from crossing the English Channel by sending certain individuals who arrived illegally in the UK to the East African country.

More than 28,000 illegal migrants have reached the UK in small boats so far this year, which is more than the same period in 2024.

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