Taken together, these reforms will make refugee integration almost impossible. How can anyone put down strong roots if they don’t know whether they will be allowed to stay? How can you build a business or plan for your children’s future? How can you form meaningful connections in your community when the government is telling you that you are only here on borrowed time? Even survivors who have lived here for decades will feel like the rug can be pulled from under their feet at any moment. This level of uncertainty is not just unhelpful; it’s deeply harmful.
The home secretary says she wants to heal a divided society, yet these proposals will do the opposite. Treating refugees as outsiders who can never fully belong will only deepen the sense of “us and them” that is pulling communities apart.
Also proposed this week are reforms to rush asylum appeals through a process that will deny refugees a fair hearing of their case. Survivors often struggle to disclose what has happened to them. They need time, stability and, crucially, access to a legal representative with whom they have a relationship of trust, for those details to come out. Fast-tracking asylum claims or restricting access to appeal dramatically increases the risk of poor quality and unsafe decisions. When quality is sacrificed for the sake of speed, refugees are in danger of being sent back to persecution. We all want a process that is efficient, but these are life and death decisions that cannot be rushed.
Most people in the UK want an asylum system rooted in fairness and compassion. Refugees are not outsiders. We are your neighbours, colleagues and friends. We contribute to our communities, our economy and our shared culture. Most people in this country are caring and compassionate, but these proposals betray that kindness. They will not fix the system, they will not bring us together and they will not help people to rebuild their lives.
We must choose a system that is effective and humane, one that gives people a fair hearing and, if recognised as needing our protection, the long-term stability required to rebuild their lives and to belong. We must come together to reject these reforms and demand better.
Kolbassia Haoussou is the survivor leadership and influencing director at Freedom from Torture.
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