All-Party Parliamentary Group says Labour's approach to cracking down on smuggling gangs should go hand-in-hand with greater support for genuine refugees
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees (APPG on Refugees) has today released an important new report on safe and legal routes for refugees, highlighting significant issues and proposing key recommendations for the UK Government.
You can download the 17-page report here.
The report is the result of an extensive inquiry conducted over the past year, involving evidence sessions with experts, refugees, and international representatives. The inquiry aimed to address the complexities and shortcomings of the current system and explore new approaches to refugee protection.
As the report acknowledges in its foreword, last year saw a record number of people dying attempting to cross the Channel. The foreword continues: "No matter your political persuasion, it is incumbent on all of us to seek to limit this tragic loss of life. To do this, we must be open to explore the role of safe and legal routes which has been the focus of our inquiry over the past year."
Overall, the APPG on Refugees' inquiry found that the current processes for safe and legal routes are overly complex, restrictive, and slow, leading to prolonged family separations and increased irregular migration. The report says UK governments since 2019 have adopted a "scattergun" approach to safe and legal routes.
The APPG on Refugees conducted three oral evidence sessions as part of the inquiry. The first session featured refugee and humanitarian sector experts who discussed the challenges and potential new routes the UK could adopt. The second session involved refugees sharing their lived experiences of accessing safe routes and navigating the UK's asylum system. The third session, held jointly with the APPG on Migration, focused on international examples of safe routes, with representatives from the US and Swiss governments providing insights into their approaches.
The report states:
"All panellists highlighted the inaccessibility of existing safe and legal routes and the inadequate number of routes and arrivals. A frequent recurring theme was the discrepancy between the Homes for Ukraine and Ukraine Family Schemes, on which over 150,000 people have arrived since the beginning of the conflict in 2022, and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) on which as of June 2024 only 2,436 individuals have arrived (excluding those relocated in Operating Pitting in August 2021). This stark difference also evidences that the availability of safe routes means people will choose them, as aforementioned - there were just two Ukrainians recorded crossing the Channel since 2022, whereas Afghans continued to constitute the top nationality of those arriving in small boats throughout the first nine months of 2024. Panellists highlighted that the majority of those arriving under ACRS have not been granted refugee status. This meant they were not conferred refugee family reunion rights, and many have been waiting more than three years to be reunited with family in Afghanistan, Pakistan or elsewhere. Whilst it is welcome that the Government initiated a process to begin family reunification for these Afghans in July 2024, the scheme overall is beset by failings and missed targets in comparison to the Ukraine schemes.
"This variation demonstrates the scattergun approach to safe and legal routes adopted by UK Governments since 2019. They have failed to effectively utilise the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS) and cooperate with the UNHCR to provide quotas for arrivals on this scheme. Instead, nationalityspecific schemes, each conferring differing entitlements, have been adopted, meaning that access to family reunion, immigration status and integration prospects are dependent on the scheme you arrived on which is unfair and inefficient. Moreover, anyone facing persecution or war and wanting to seek asylum in the UK who is not from one of the countries with nationality-specific schemes has very limited ways to get here.
"The refugee family reunion route was also highlighted by panellists as not operating effectively. Despite the number of visas issued increasing significantly in 2024, two-thirds of cases are failing to meet the Home Office's own service standard of processing within 60 days. A backlog of family reunion cases has risen to at least 11,000 cases, with panellists identifying the delays as one of the reasons people are turning to people smugglers and taking dangerous journeys. The UK also operates one of the most restrictive refugee family reunion policies in Europe. The APPG inquiry heard how refugee children in the UK are unable to sponsor their family members to join them, one of just three nations in the European Economic Area to restrict this entitlement. Moreover, there are harsh financial and accommodation requirements on refugee family members in the UK trying to bring child relatives outside the UK to join them. All of these factors are contributing to an increase in irregular arrivals, as outlined by the panellists."
While acknowledging the new Labour government's progress in cracking down on people smuggling gangs facilitating the dangerous journeys across the Channel, the APPG on Refugees said it believes that this approach does not preclude the Government from also improving safe and legal routes for refugees.
The APPG on Refugees makes three main recommendations for the Government. Firstly, it calls for improvements to refugee family reunion by processing cases within 60 days, allowing refugee children to sponsor their family members, and removing financial restrictions on UK-based sponsors. Secondly, it recommends restoring the UK Resettlement Scheme as the primary resettlement route and reaffirming the commitment to resettle 20,000 Afghans under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme. Thirdly, the report proposes introducing a pilot refugee visa scheme targeted at high grant rate countries, with a cap of 10,000 visas during the pilot period. Each recommendation is explored in detail in the report.
The report concludes by emphasising the need for a dual approach that supports genuine refugees while securing borders to save lives and end human suffering. The APPG on Refugees says it hopes that the Government will heed the lessons and recommendations outlined in the report to achieve lasting change for refugees.