Overview
- Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced the package on Friday, June 26, unveiling plans to let community groups, trusted universities and, later, employers sponsor eligible refugees to come to the UK.
- The Home Office will publish an Immigration and Asylum Bill next week that will limit the ECHR 'family' test to immediate relatives and restrict some modern slavery protections to make deportation easier.
- Officials say applications will open from autumn for the university sponsorship route, an employer-sponsored route will follow next year, and the first arrivals under the schemes are expected in 2027.
- Ministers describe the move as a way to offer safe, legal alternatives to dangerous journeys and to relieve pressure on the asylum system, but the measures have drawn criticism from refugee groups and raised disagreement inside Labour over changes such as limits on indefinite leave to remain.
- The plan draws on Canada’s long-running private sponsorship model and the UK’s Homes for Ukraine, and officials say it will run at a much higher capacity than existing resettlement schemes though formal annual caps and targets have not been published.