UK Immigration Bill Restricts Asylum Rights, MPs Warn

UK Immigration Bill to Restrict Asylum Rights and Curb Human Rights Protections, MPs Warned

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is set to place a sweeping immigration and asylum bill before parliament as early as next Tuesday, introducing measures that would accelerate forced removals, tighten age verification for child asylum seekers, and constrain the application of human rights law in deportation cases.

What the Bill Contains

The legislation would direct courts in how they apply Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights — the right to family life — in immigration and deportation proceedings. Mahmood has previously argued that Article 8 has been used to obstruct removals and erode public confidence in the rule of law.

The bill would also restructure the asylum appeals process by abolishing the independent tribunal system and replacing it with a new appeals body housed within the Home Office itself — a move critics say raises serious concerns about judicial independence and access to justice.

Additional provisions would permit the immediate forced removal of individuals who have exhausted all appeals, introduce stricter age assessment mechanisms including the use of artificial intelligence, and amend the modern slavery framework to prevent late presentation of claims.

What the Bill Does Not Include

Notably absent from the bill are proposed changes to indefinite leave to remain (ILR) rules, which had threatened to double the qualifying period from five to ten years for most migrant workers — and to apply those changes retrospectively to people already in the UK.

The retrospective element provoked a backlash from as many as 100 Labour MPs, including Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who called it unfair and “un-British.” Those changes are now expected to be introduced separately via secondary legislation.

Political Context

The bill is expected to face opposition from Labour backbenchers, Liberal Democrat MPs, and independents. The team of Andy Burnham, widely expected to enter Downing Street within weeks, is understood to be aware of the bill’s contents.

The speed of the bill’s introduction has itself drawn criticism. Refugee charities note that the legislation is being pushed through ahead of a change in prime minister, limiting parliamentary scrutiny.

Charities Warn of Harm to Children and Families

Jo Cobley, chief executive of Safe Passage International, said her organisation had expected the bill to follow the confirmation of a new prime minister. “It seems the home secretary is determined to push through these harsh plans for refugees,” she said, warning that restrictions on family reunion would harm children and families already separated by war and persecution.

Anita Hurrell, co-chair of the Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium, raised specific concerns about the bill’s impact on child victims of modern slavery, warning that measures penalising late disclosure of abuse could exclude vulnerable children from protection.

Hurrell also cautioned that AI-assisted age assessments risked placing children into an adult asylum system “bewildering and unsafe” for minors, and called on the government to publish a child rights impact assessment before the bill proceeds.

A recent report by a coalition of refugee and children’s rights organisations had already flagged that the government’s proposed use of AI in age estimation “could create new risks for children.”