Migrants try to board a smuggler's boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel off the beach of Gravelines, northern France on Aug. 12.SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP/Getty Images
Many Europeans remember 2015 and the immediate years that followed for one thing: the millions of Syrian and Afghan refugees who flooded the continent looking for a safe alternative to their war-torn and dangerous countries.
At the time, countries such as Germany, under then-chancellor Angela Merkel, promoted the concept of “Willkommenskultur” – a culture of welcoming and kindness. Others followed suit. But in recent years, the open arms that once greeted these asylum seekers have folded shut.
One of the first to take a hard-line position on immigration was Denmark. And it was the social democrat Mette Frederiksen, made Prime Minister in 2019, who introduced many of the measures now being emulated by others.
Ms. Frederiksen introduced a new deportation law allowing for refugees to be returned to their country of origin if it was deemed safe. Her government shut down and even demolished, in some cases, social housing areas where more than half the residents were from a “non-Western” background and which had become cesspools of crime and poverty. It made the path to Danish citizenship an arduous eight-year process, giving the government more time to banish refugees who had become “undesirable” – anyone convicted of a crime being among them. Denmark’s policies have reduced asylum claims to a 40-year low. The country has been able to remove 95 per cent of rejected applicants.
Other countries took notice – including Britain.
Proposed changes to Britain’s asylum system would ramp up deportations
Last week, the Labour government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a major overhaul of the country’s asylum policy – now the most stringent and punitive in all of Europe. Needless to say, not everyone in the left-wing party is thrilled about policies viewed by some as unnecessarily cruel. Others, however, are less concerned, given the rise of the far-right Reform Party, whose ascension to the top of the polls in Britain has been fuelled, almost singularly, by a platform that exploits anti-immigrant rage.
While asylum claims have been falling throughout most of Europe, they had been rising in Britain. In the last four years, according to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who introduced the reforms, 400,000 people have claimed asylum in the country. More than 100,000 are housed and supported by taxpayers. That said, net migration to Britain has fallen almost 80 per cent from its 2023 peak, according to the latest data.
A delegation from the British government visited Denmark earlier this year to see what it did to knock its immigration numbers to the ground. When it returned, they decided to go even further than their European counterpart.
For starters, Britain is quadrupling the wait for asylum seekers to qualify for permanent settlement to 20 years. During that time, their status will be reviewed every two-and-a-half years. If a person’s country becomes “safe” in the intervening period, they will be returned. Even those migrants who arrive legally in Britain will face a 10-year pathway to permanent residency – double the current five years.
Britain is talking with several countries about hosting rejected asylum seekers, Starmer says
Housing and weekly allowances will be withdrawn from any claimant who can work and support themselves but chooses not to. Refugees will no longer be able to use familial links as a pathway to stay in Britain. The reforms even included a plan to confiscate valuables, including jewellery, as a means of defraying housing costs – a measure that’s been denounced as “performative cruelty.” (The government later clarified it would not seize anything of sentimental value.)
Immigration is a hot-button issue almost everywhere in the Western world, including in this country. There is a general sense that the brakes need to be pumped – a little in some cases, a lot in others. It’s not easy, however, when you’re talking about turning away people who have been persecuted, tortured or may be murdered if they return to the country they are fleeing.
At the same time, asylum seekers have placed an unsustainable burden on the social systems of many countries. The immigration explosion we have witnessed, largely due to the increasingly volatile and violent world in which we live, has to be contained. It’s not fair to the citizens of those countries being overrun by people illegally seeking sanctuary.
The problem this phenomenon has created for Western governments is serious. Britain has become a tinderbox over the issue. Tens of thousands have taken to the streets in protest. Riots have broken out. Refugees have become targets of violent acts.
While the Labour government’s reforms go too far for some, they don’t go far enough for many. The bottom line is, Britain is being torn apart over illegal migration. The Starmer government had to do something. In fact, their new policies are long overdue.