Overview
- Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced the plan on Friday, saying it will open safe, legal sponsorship routes to reduce dangerous small-boat crossings and control the asylum system.
- The Home Office will allow community groups and trusted universities to sponsor refugees from the autumn with applications for a university route due to open later this year and first sponsored arrivals expected in 2027.
- A separate employer sponsorship route is planned to open the year after the university route and the new schemes will be capped and start from a modest level before expanding.
- The Immigration and Asylum Bill will tighten the European Convention on Human Rights family test to immediate relatives only, restrict modern slavery protections for some foreign offenders, and bar late human-rights claims in many deportation cases.
- The government says it will work with UNHCR and carry out background checks to set eligibility, reporters have suggested an eventual scale of about 10,000 places though ministers have not confirmed a target, and the package has provoked internal ministerial rows and questions about Mahmood’s future under the incoming leadership.