Returns could be both voluntary and enforced under Shabana Mahmood’s immigration reforms
Shabana Mahmood plans to step up deportations to Syria in the coming months as an early priority of her asylum crackdown despite fears over violence after the fall of the Assad regime.
The Home Secretary is ploughing ahead with plans to increase removals to Syria despite the UK Government highlighting “deeply concerning” violence, mass displacement of civilians and a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Syria.
Mahmood announced in November she was exploring forced returns of asylum seekers to countries previously deemed unsafe, for example due to war, like Syria, as she announced plans for sweeping, hardline Denmark-style asylum reforms.
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The i Paper understands that she is making removals to Syria an early priority of delivering the policy package and plans a stepping up of returns, which could be both voluntary or enforced, in the coming months.
A limited number of Syrians have already been helped to return since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in 2024.
But the plan to step up removals comes after Middle East minister, Hamish Falconer, this week raised concerns about violence between Syrian government forces and Kurdish-led rebels in Aleppo and north-east Syria, however, and the displacement of 146,000 people and threats to the security of detention centres for Isis militants.
Experts and charities warned that attempting to ramp up removals to Syria amid “a lot of instability” risks shifting the pressure in the asylum backlog, which is linked to the controversial use of hotels to house migrants, on to the appeals system.
Calls not to forcibly return migrants to Syria
Even before the clashes broke out, in December 2024 the UN Refugee Agency was calling on countries not to forcibly return Syrians as the situation had not improved enough after the fall of Assad to end refugee status for the country’s nationals. The i Paper understands that position has not changed.
But Mahmood is continuing with the plans, which are part of a package inspired by Denmark’s tough asylum system. The Nordic country deports 95 per cent of failed asylum seekers and has pushed asylum claims down to a 40-year low.
It comes after The i Paper revealed that ending the Government’s duty to automatically support destitute asylum seekers would be one of the first policies to be delivered from Mahmood’s “Restoring Order and Control” plan to begin gripping the Channel small boats crisis. Syria removals are expected to follow in the coming months.
The Government is under pressure to grip the Channel crisis by reducing the number of asylum seekers entering the UK in small boats and cutting the use of hotels to house them.
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which has made asylum its top issue, is ahead in opinion polls and is expected to inflict heavy defeats on Labour in May’s local elections, and could help squeeze Keir Starmer’s party into third place in Wales and Scotland.
Removals could help ease hotel use
In the year ending June 2025 Syrian nationals made up 9 per cent of small boat arrivals, the fourth most common nationality, according to the Government. However, numbers have fallen since the Assad regime was toppled.
If removals to Syria are carried out on a mass scale it could help Mahmood move people on from the asylum backlog and out of accommodation such as hotels.
Oxford University’s Migration Observatory suggested thousands of Syrians could theoretically be sent back with around 7,900 waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application (10 per cent of the total) and 6,600 receiving asylum support while their claim is pending (6 per cent), of which 1,900 are in hotels (5 per cent).
Syrian government forces after retaking the city of Raqqa from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces this month. The security situation in much of the country remains volatile (Photo: Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty)
But charities warned that the country’s fragile emergence from 13 years of civil war could mean many Syrians appeal any decision that they should not be granted refugee protection and must return home.
The Refugee Council said the Government should instead give Syrians temporary leave to remain in the UK until it was safe to return people, and therefore get people out of hotels without giving them settlement.
‘A lot of instability in Syria’
Jon Featonby, chief policy analyst for Refugee Council, said: “A year on from the fall of the Assad regime, it is clear that there is still a lot of instability in Syria and that the situation changes from one day to the next.
“While some Syrians may feel able to return home voluntarily – and should be supported to do so – it’s vital that all decisions are taken on a case-by-case basis.
“Far from solving the asylum backlog, trying to remove people before Syria is safe will just shift the pressure to the appeals system.
“As of September 2025, that backlog had already doubled as over 90,000 people were stuck in limbo waiting to appeal their decision.
“Challenges with removing people safely to Syria are expected to continue for quite some time. So to effectively clear the backlog and end hotel use, the Government should instead grant temporary discretionary leave, subject to rigorous security checks, to people from Syria to stay in the UK.”
Syrians with refugee status not affected
Mihnea Cuibus, a researcher at the Migration Observatory, said Syrians who have already been given refugee status will not be affected.
“How many refused Syrians are actually returned in practice is yet to be seen. Syrians already given status in the UK won’t be affected, so the main impact will be on those with pending applications, as well as those who have been refused protection in the past and remain in the UK.”
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Since Assad’s brutal dictatorship was topped in December 2024, the UK and other Western countries have re-established diplomatic ties with the Syrian government led by former rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, while many sanctions have been lifted to support reconstruction.
Sharaa has promised to reunify Syria but the country is seen as divided and there have been outbreaks of sectarian violence since the revolution.
A Home Office spokesman said: “As outlined in the asylum policy statement, we are exploring resuming enforced returns to countries where we have not routinely carried out such removals in recent years, including to Syria.”