What the government’s new immigration reforms mean – and why it’s worse than you think
In November 2025, the government announced one of the biggest shake-ups of the UK’s immigration system in decades.
Many of the proposals are still lacking detail and will go out to consultation – but what is clear is that these plans risk tearing families apart, pushing more people into danger, and creating even more chaos in an already broken system.
Here’s what you need to know.
1. A new temporary status for refugees – with a 20-year wait to settle
Under the proposals, people who are granted protection in the UK will now get a new “core protection” status. This will mean:
Refugees only get 2.5 years of protection at a time, and will have to re-apply again and again.
They will have to wait 20 years before they can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (permanent settlement).
At each renewal, the Government will reassess whether their home country is “safe” and could try to return them.
This will replace the current system, where refugees receive five years of protection and can then apply for permanent settlement.
What this means: Requiring refugees to reapply for protection every 2.5 years and endure an incredibly long wait for permanent settlement is cruel and unnecessary. Children and families who have already built lives in the UK would be left in limbo, unable to move forward with their lives and potentially at constant risk of being deported. This policy would also create massive delays to an already broken system, and cost the government hundreds of millions of pounds.
2. A major attack on family reunion
The proposed changes would amount to ending family reunion as we know it. Under the plans:
Refugees under the newly created “core protection” status will no longer have the right to reunite with their spouse or children from overseas.
Family reunion will only become possible if refugees later qualify for a separate “protection work and study” route – which is likely to come with significant fees, income thresholds, and strict work/study requirements.
The government wants to narrow the legal definition of “family” to only parents and their children. This could remove existing rights for siblings, aunts, uncles, and other close family members, even when they are the last relatives a child or adult refugee has.
They also plan to narrow the application of the right to family life (article 8 of the European Convention) in UK courts.
What this means: The proposed new family reunion changes will rip families apart and leave countless child refugees stranded in danger, without the care and protection of relatives. Far from stopping dangerous journeys, these policies would push more people to risk their lives crossing the Channel. The UK would become one of the toughest places in Europe to seek safety – harsher even than under previous Conservative governments. And this attack on the right to family life doesn’t just harm refugees; it weakens human rights for everyone.
3. Cuts to asylum support and housing
The Government plans to remove its legal duty to provide asylum accommodation and basic support. This means support could be refused to people seeking safety at the government’s discretion.
It is deeply unfair that the Home Secretary is continuing to ban refugees from working while simultaneously expecting them to find their own accommodation. Life in asylum accommodation is far from a luxury: reports show the harrowing conditions people are forced to live in, including some cases of malnutrition and other food-related illnesses.
What this means: Without support, many people are likely to be pushed into homelessness and destitution – leaving local authorities, charities and communities to pick up the pieces.
4. A tokenistic promise of“safe routes”… but only for a few people
The Government has promised new safe and legal routes, but they will initially be open to only a few hundred people across all schemes.
Most of these routes depend on community sponsorship, which requires sponsors to have £9,000 in savings, long-term housing, and local authority approval. Existing community sponsorship has only resettled an average of 125 people a year.
We’re still waiting for details about specific routes for unaccompanied children and families. We will continue pushing the Government to create safe, accessible routes for the children who need them most.
What this means: The new routes this government is proposing will be far too small and inaccessible to provide a real alternative to dangerous journeys. Introducing tiny, tightly limited schemes while simultaneously closing long-standing safe routes like family reunion makes this commitment feel more like political window-dressing than real protection.
5. Appeal rights will be significantly limited to make deportations easier
The plans set out that people whose asylum claims are refused will now have only one appeal against removal, and there will be stricter rules around the right to challenge decisions. The government has also stated its intention to remove families and explore “return hubs” – with refugees potentially sent to unknown third countries until they can be deported back to where they fled from.
What this means: The government will be able to deport more people with minimal safeguards under these new plans, even when they might still have a legitimate reason to fear for their lives – including children. This risks violating the UK’s international obligations, including the principle of non-refoulement (which prohibits countries from returning refugees to a place where their life or freedom would be at risk).
These reforms won’t stop deaths at sea. They won’t break smuggling networks. And they won’t create an orderly system. What they will do is put children and families in danger, tear communities apart, and hand the far right a political win – all while increasing costs and pressure on local services.
The Government must urgently reverse course, starting by restoring the right to family reunion and scrapping plans that push people into homelessness and insecurity. We need a system that based on protection, not punishment, a children and refugees with genuine, accessible, safe routes. We’ll continue fighting these plans – in Parliament, in the courts, and alongside the families who rely on safe routes to survive.