UK to announce plans to emulate stringent Danish immigration system | Immigration and asylum

According to information obtained by the Guardian, Shabana Mahmood will announce changes to the UK’s immigration rules, which are largely modeled on the Danish system, which is considered among the strictest in Europe.

Last month, the interior minister sent officials to Denmark to review its border control and asylum policies. The country’s stricter rules on family reunification and restricting some refugees to temporary stays are among the policies under consideration.

Mahmood will announce the changes later this month, according to the BBC. reported plans.

The proposals have drawn scorn from some Labor MPs, particularly those on the left of the party, who say it is a “dangerous path down the road”, while others want the government to go further.

In Denmark, refugees who are personally targeted by a foreign regime are more likely to be granted protection, while those fleeing conflict are generally only allowed to stay in the country temporarily. Denmark itself decides which country is safe.

The Danish government has informed approximately 1,200 refugees arriving from Damascus in Syria in 2022 that their residence permits will not be renewed because it has broken ties with the UN and the EU and decided that the region is safe for the return of refugees.

UK Home Office officials were also impressed by Denmark’s stricter rules on family reunification. There are many thresholds that must be met when a refugee who has been granted residence rights wants their partner to join them. Both people must be 24 years of age or over, the Danish partner must not have claimed benefits for three years and must also provide financial security. Both partners must pass the Danish language test.

Denmark also banned people living in designated public housing. More than 50% of residents in what the government calls “parallel societies” where family reunification is permitted are considered to be from “non-western” backgrounds.

In 2021, Denmark passed a law allowing it to process asylum seekers outside Europe, sparking outrage from human rights advocates, the UN and the European Commission.

Labor MP Clive Lewis has been deeply critical of the British government’s plans to adopt the Danish system in a bid to surpass Reform UK.

“Denmark’s Social Democrats have abandoned what I would call a hardline approach to immigration,” he said. “They adopted many of the talking points of what we might call the far right.

“Labour needs to win back some Reform-leaning voters, but you can’t do that at the expense of losing progressive votes.”

Nadia Whittome, Labour’s MP for Nottingham East and a member of Labour’s Socialist Campaign Group, said this would be a “dangerous path” and that some of Denmark’s policies, particularly those relating to “parallel societies”, were “undeniably racist”.

“I think it’s a moral, political and electoral dead end,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Some Labor MPs from the party’s heartland told the BBC off the record that they would oppose the implementation of Denmark’s immigration policies in the UK.

But Jo White, who leads a group of Labor MPs in “red wall” seats in the Midlands and the north of England, said she wanted to see the government move further in the Danish direction.

“As a result, we will be heading into a general election where Reform will be the major challenger for most of the Labor seats and we will be wiped out,” he said.

Mahmood, who was appointed home affairs minister in September, announced a set of new conditions that people seeking asylum must meet, while telling the Labor Party conference that “contributing to this country is a requirement”; These include plans to extend the period for which indefinite leave to remain is usually granted from five to 10 years.

He has faced criticism from charities who accuse him of “scapegoating” immigrants. Following his conference speech, more than 100 charities, including the Refugee Movement, Save the Children and Oxfam, called on Mahmood to find solutions to problems related to housing, the climate crisis and the NHS, and to end the use of damaging “performative policies”.