Asylum revolution: Priti Patel eyes benefit curbs for migrants who arrive illegally in 'two-tier' system to crack down on Channel crossings

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Asylum rights will be slashed for migrants who arrive in Britain illegally under major reforms announced today.

Priti Patel will introduce a 'two-tier' system in which those who come via unauthorised routes – such as crossing the Channel in small boats – are given far fewer privileges.

Even if they have a legitimate claim to refugee status, migrants who arrive illegally will be granted permission to stay in this country only temporarily. They will be barred from claiming most welfare benefits.

And their ability to bring relatives here to join them, currently permitted under 'family reunification' rights, will be curtailed. 

At the same time, efforts to remove Channel migrants who could have claimed asylum in safe countries they travelled through – such as France – will be stepped up.

By comparison, successful asylum seekers who applied in advance to come here through legal routes, such as the United Nations' refugee agency, will be rewarded. 

Around 150 migrants, including a young girl, crossed the English Channel yesterday and were brought to Dover in Kent 

Home Secretary Priti Patel, pictured on March 15, will unveil details of the biggest asylum system shake-up for a generation

A map shows the points along the coast where migrants have landed in the UK over the past year after crossing from France

They will win permission to come to Britain immediately and will be allowed to stay here indefinitely. The Home Secretary will unveil full details later today of the biggest shake-up of the asylum system for a generation. 

Her scheme, dubbed the 'New Plan for Immigration', will be controversial because it separates asylum claims into two 'classes'. 

Refugee charities claim many migrants have no choice but to come here by illegal routes.

Miss Patel said: 'Under our New Plan for Immigration, if people arrive illegally they will no longer have the same entitlements as those who arrive legally, and it will be harder for them to stay. 

'If, like over 60 per cent of illegal arrivals, they have travelled through a safe country like France to get here, they will not have immediate entry into the asylum system – which is what happens today.

'I make no apology for these actions being firm, but as they will also save lives and target people smugglers, they are also undeniably fair.'

Other elements in the wide-ranging package announced today will include streamlining the asylum appeals process, and setting up reception centres to replace hotel accommodation and ex-Army barracks used during the pandemic.

It will also be made harder for asylum seekers to make unsubstantiated claims of persecution. 

An independent body will be set up to determine the true age of applicants suspected to be posing as children, as revealed by the Daily Mail last week.

Jail sentences will be increased for people smugglers and foreign criminals who sneak back into the country after being deported. 

A new humanitarian route will be created to make it easier to bring individuals to Britain if they face imminent danger in their homeland – as in the case of Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian who spent eight years on death row on blasphemy charges before she was acquitted in 2019.

Miss Patel said: 'We will stop the most unscrupulous abusing the system by posing as children, by introducing tougher, more accurate age assessments. 

'Profiteering from illegal migration to Britain will no longer be worth the risk, with new maximum life sentences for people smugglers.' 

The number of asylum applications lodged in the UK in the years ending December 2011 to December last year, dropping after the Covid pandemic was declared

The number of people offered protection in the form of resettlement (bottom line), asylum and alternative forms of leave (middle line) totalled 9,936 in 2020. The total number of people granted asylum or some form of protection (top line) fell by more than half that of 2019

The top 10 nationalities claiming asylum in the UK and the grant rate at initial decision (shown by percentage) in 2019 and 2020. The most applications in both 2019 and 2020 came from Iran, while Eritrea and Syria had the highest grant rates last year 

The number of asylum applicants to the top five countries in the EU+ and the UK for the years ending November 2014 to November last year, with Italy receiving the smallest number of applications in 2020. The other EU+ category includes all other countries that are European Union member states, part of the European Economic Area and Switzerland 

This morning, Miss Patel told Sky News she has not ruled out seeking agreements with the likes of Gibraltar and the Isle of Man to process asylum seekers. 

She said: 'All the time people are being trafficked and smuggled through illegal routes, we as a Government have a duty of responsibility to consider all options.

'We will look at third country removal and we will also do that looking alongside bilateral agreements.

'As part of this consultation we will put all options on the table in terms of working with third countries, and countries like Denmark already exploring options like this, and we will continue to explore bilaterally options in terms of returning and removing people that have come to the United Kingdom illegally.'

Miss Patel also insisted 'safe and legal routes' to claim asylum in the UK will be created.

She told Sky News: 'We're putting out to consultation how we develop safe and legal routes... to support people who are fleeing but in-country.

'Too many people have died trying to come to the UK. We've got to break this people smuggling model, we've got to put in safe and legal routes and we've actually got to be able to help genuine asylum seekers not just flee persecution but be resettled in the United Kingdom. Currently our asylum system is overwhelmed.'

Migrants who come to the UK illegally and whose claims are found to be genuine will receive a new 'temporary protection' status – lasting 30 months – instead of the automatic right to settle here. 

During that period they will be 'regularly reassessed for removal from the UK'.

For example, if the political situation improves in their home country and they are no longer at risk, they could be sent back. 

They will have 'no recourse to public funds', which means they will no longer be able to claim benefits such as income support, housing benefit or tax credits. Access to the NHS will remain.

A Home Office spokesman said it was a 'step change' towards tackling the 'collapsing' system. 

'Access to the UK's asylum system will be based on genuine need of refuge, not on the ability to pay people smugglers,' he added. 

Migrants are helped ashore on the Border Force vessel 'Hunter' as they walk onto Dover Harbour in Kent yesterday

More than 100 migrants crossed the English Channel yesterday on what is believed to be the record day of the year

More than 8,500 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats last year, compared with just 1,850 in the previous 12 months. 

At the end of December a record 64,041 asylum seekers were receiving taxpayer-funded support, a 37 per cent increase in just three years.

Asylum seekers currently receive £39.63 a week for each member of their household, plus free accommodation if they need it. Asylum support now costs the taxpayer just under £1billion a year.

Enver Solomon, of the Refugee Council, said: 'The Government is effectively creating a two-tier system where some refugees are unfairly punished for the way they get to the UK. 

'This is wholly unjust and undermines the UK's long tradition of providing protection for people regardless of how they have managed to find their way to our shores, who have gone on to become proud British citizens contributing as doctors, nurses and entrepreneurs to our communities.'

He added: 'The reality is that when faced with upheaval ordinary people are forced to take extraordinary measures and do not have a choice about how they seek safety. 

'All refugees deserve to be treated with compassion and dignity, and it's a stain on 'Global Britain' to subject some refugees to differential treatment.' 

Speaking to ITV's Good Morning Britain today, Mr Solomon said it was wrong for Britain to be 'slamming the door shut in the face of those who have to make perilous journeys to get here'.

Talking about people smugglers, he continued: 'These criminal gangs are truly abhorrent and we wholly condemn that practice, but the people who are caught up in these gangs are innocent victims. They're people who are in search of a better life, they've had to flee war, they've had to flee terror and persecution

'Not everybody should be given asylum status - we need an effective and efficient system, and what that means is that everyone is given the opportunity to have their case heard when they get here. If they don't meet the legal threshold absolutely they should be send back to their country and that should happen.

'The principal should be one that we've upheld for many decades, hundreds and thousands coming here and contributing to our country fight against the pandemic. We had nurses and doctors keeping this country safe that came here as refugees - it's really important to remember that. 

'They were given a fair hearing and that's the principal here, someone should be able to make an asylum application and be given a fair, effective and efficient hearing.'

And Jess Phillips, Labour's shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, said Miss Patel should spend more time stopping British criminals and less seeking 'clicks and likes'.

She tweeted: 'Hope as Priti Patel tours studios she is asked why she talks tough on foreign criminals, but has overseen highest numbers in UK ever.

'Also how come she's not tough on British criminals committing rape & sex crimes against children. Conviction of both have dropped in her time.

'If only her actions affected more than headlines we might see crime falling and rapists locked away, instead she's traded our safety for clicks and likes. I'd rather we protected more people from sex offenders personally.'