Nov 16, 2025
3 min read
Refugees and irregular migrants will have to stay in the UK for 20 years, up from the current five.Your status will be reviewed every 30 months.
The Starmer government will tighten deadlines for asylum seekers to secure permanent housing
Refugees and illegal immigrants will need to stay in the UK for 20 years, compared with the current five years. Your status will be reviewed every 30 months.
Keir Starmer's government refuses to accept the arguments of the Labor Party's internal critics, who accuse it of copying the strategy of the far right in response to immigration. "Illegal (sic) immigration is destroying our country. Our job as a Labor government is precisely to bring it together, and if we don't solve this problem, we will be increasingly divided," defended Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, who is preparing to announce this Monday a radical and historic review of conditionsof access to permanent residency in the United Kingdom.
The minister began to point out many of the details of the proposal in an intense round of interviews with different media such as The Times and the BBC throughout Sunday, aware that the Starmer Executive has an intense parliamentary battle ahead of it to carry out its plans.
Under the new model, which is set to be promoted, all those who arrive in the UK irregularly and start the asylum process, as well as those who stay in the country after their entry visa expires, will have to wait 20 years before they can obtain permanent residency.So far that period has been five years.
Furthermore, once this status of legal residence is obtained, it will not be final.The government will retain the right to review it every 30 months, and if it deems conditions in the country of origin safe again, it can deport those previously granted asylum.
The minister, who is the daughter of Pakistani immigrants who came to the UK illegally and is a practicing Muslim, claims the government was inspired by the Danish model, which saw a 95% drop in asylum applications for people who entered the country illegally after applying.It becomes one that uses a heavy hand.
However, these new measures will only apply to those entering the country after they come into effect.
According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, a total of 111,000 people applied for asylum in Great Britain between June 2024 and the same month in 2025. In turn, between March and March of those two years, 172,798 immigrants received this status.
Starmer's government is also preparing to extend the time it takes for people who enter the country legally to become permanent residents from five to 10 years.
But in a perverse and brutal task force that considered it a sign of brutality, priests gained the right to receive refugees.
All able-bodied people should stop receiving contributions that continue to be paid for housing and maintenance.And those who committed a crime will get the job of their dreams.
"There are currently people who are receiving support [from the state] because of their status as asylum seekers, who can work and who have the legal right to do so," Mahmoud explained."And the government wants them to work," he added.
The British government is trying to create an educational process and measures, encouraging anyone who wants to try to reach the British territory where the journey is not necessary."I think it is important to send a clear signal to all those who are trying to get here in safe ways through the safe countries of Europe, a trip that is a trip to France. A trip that is not worth it," the minister said in press time.
Downing Street has supported the argument presented by Engel Farage's farthest party or the Conservative Party itself that irregular immigration has caused intolerable tension between British citizens."I think people feel, rightly, that the transfer and scale [of travel] has gotten out of control in that a lot of pressure has been put on the communities," said Mahmed.
In the face of criticism from party members, such as the MP Nadia Whittome, who accused the Government of "copying far-right policies", or from organizations such as the UK Refugee Council, whose executive director, Enver Solomon, deemed the measures "harsh and unnecessary", the minister has defined his task as a "moral mission": "The argument is not that it has undermined the system of far-reaching disinformation, but making clear that we have a problem", he said.
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