Immigration policy changes in the UK has created upset within asylum seekers supporting charities

New changes to immigration policy have upset the local asylum seekers and refugees charity SWVG, with William Brook Hart, a volunteer, saying, “Politicians need to step up and start telling positive stories about the good things about asylum seekers and refugees.”

SWVG, a local charity that has been running for 20 years, with volunteers like Brook Hart who befriend the most vulnerable, said that the current challenges refugees and asylum seekers face, including “a huge lack of solicitors or legal advice to help with the asylum process”. 

The UK’s Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has announced new measures regarding the country’s illegal migration policy. These are significant changes that will affect the lives of many, with the biggest being the increased 20-year wait list before being granted permanent settlement. 

Reviewing refugee status will become a regular occurrence, with judgment on immigrants’ home countries being deemed safe for return. This will be done every two and a half years by reviewing the status. 

Alongside this, Mahmood announced the stop to granting visas to people from Angola, Namibia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

Migration Observatory has shown that around “109,343 people claimed asylum in the UK from 12 months to March this year” with an overall total of a “17% increase on the year before”. 

With protests across the country, including Southampton’s large anti-immigrant protests on 26th October. Brook-Hart said about his own attendance at pro immigration protests and how they were “four times the number that they have” but “some of them are very abusive”. 

Whilst many worry and question the human rights of these new changes, a lot of the UK are feeling like Shabana Mahmood that “illegal migration is tearing the country apart”. 

This policy is being processed and not being fully confirmed; the reality of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK won’t be clear until the future, but uncertainty is one of many issues.