In a significant policy shift, the UK is set to grant asylum to more than 60,000 migrants in the coming year, following Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s cancellation of the Conservative Party’s Rwanda plan, reports The Telegraph.
This move comes after the Labour Party inherited approximately 119,000 individual asylum claims from its predecessor.
Previously, migrants were barred from seeking asylum under laws introduced by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, which mandated the detention and deportation of anyone arriving illegally to a safe country like Rwanda.
However, Labour has leveraged the authorities outlined in the Illegal Immigration Act passed by the Conservatives to lift this ban and annul the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s obligation to transfer asylum seekers to a third country.
The Refugee Council, a charitable organization, estimates that 62,800 individuals among the 118,882 awaiting a decision on their asylum claims will succeed.
This prediction is based on the success rates for asylum seekers from certain nationalities in the UK, with nearly 53% projected to be granted refugee status.
Significantly, migrants from Afghanistan, where 96% of claims are successful, Iran with an 82% success rate, and Syria, Eritrea, and Sudan, each with a 99% success rate, make up a third of the total number of applicants.
This policy reversal marks a pivotal change in the UK’s approach to handling refugee and migrant situations.
In August, the UK Labour government unveiled plans to deport large numbers of undocumented migrants in a bid to reduce the number of refugees in the country.
According to a government official, the Home Office has recently issued a contract to find commercial partners to assist in the reintegration of individuals who do not have the right to remain in the United Kingdom back into their home countries.
The contract, valued at £15 million ($19.7 million) and lasting three years, was published last week.
