Our Statement on Labour's Border Security, Asylum, and Immigration Bill

Last week, the Labour government introduced the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill. While the repeal of the Safety of Rwanda Act and elements of the Illegal Migration Act (IMA) is a necessary and welcome step, this Bill fails to address the issues at the heart of the UK’s asylum system. In fact, it entrenches many of the same harmful policies introduced by the previous government.

This Bill retains the expands detention powers introduced by the IMA as well as the weakened protections for survivors of modern slavery. It also continues to render asylum and human rights claims automatically inadmissible from people fleeing countries such as Albania, Georgia, and India. Instead of delivering real reform, it doubles down on a system designed to punish and exclude.

The government is prioritising border enforcement over human lives. With this new Bill people seeking safety will face even greater criminalisation, with increased surveillance, phone seizures, expanded data access, and harsher penalties. Those who attempt to assist asylum seekers face up to 14 years in prison.

Yet, despite all these punitive measures, the government has offered no safe routes for people fleeing war and persecution to seek refuge in the UK. There are no new humanitarian visas, no improved resettlement schemes, and no meaningful commitments to international protection. There is as well no expansion of the existing family reunion rules. Instead, the focus remains on so-called deterrence, detention, and deportation, showing no sign of change since the previous Conservative government.

The refusal to repeal barriers preventing victims of trafficking from accessing support and the continued detention of children further exposes this Bill for what it truly is: an extension of the Hostile Environment under a different name. Whether a Labour or Conservative government, the obsession with militarising the border and criminalising those fleeing persecution, whilst steadfastly refusing to acknowledge why people take dangerous journeys, means nothing substantive will change. More lives will be lost and people in need will continue being exploited, both in the UK and on their journeys here.

This approach is not only inhumane, but fundamentally counterproductive. The government cannot claim to be fixing the asylum system while making it even more dangerous and inaccessible. Until there is a real commitment to safe routes, fair asylum processes, and respect for international law, this Bill will only serve to create more suffering and more chaos.