Shabana Mahmood's Asylum Reforms - Faragist on Foreigners, Tory on Tax

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s proposed asylum reforms received high praise from Reform leader Nigel Farage and notorious far-right activist Tommy Robinson. Inspired by Denmark’s asylum model, Mahmood’s reforms include refugees having to reclaim asylum every two and a half years, refugees needing to be in the UK for twenty years before they can apply for permanent residency, harsher interpretations of the ECHR frameworks regarding family reunion, and the seizing of high-value assets upon entry to contribute towards asylum costs. Making these proposals, Mahmood received an invitation from Farage to join the Reform Party and Robinson declared that “The Overton window has been obliterated, well done patriots.” A sobering statement indeed. 

And a true statement, too, if these reforms are enacted. Fortunately, it is, or at least I hope it is, still a big “if”; not least because of the growing backlash within the Labour Party over these proposals - as should be expected for any proposal that receives a golden sticker from the far-right.

Mahmood’s proposals are a response to the long-growing public discord about Britain’s asylum system being broken. See, there’s a rumour going around that tax payers’ money is being spent on luxury hotels and spa experiences for asylum seekers – and not just any asylum seekers, the ones who arrive here illegally, by boats, who are also criminals, and they arrive here illegally by illegal boats and steal British jobs illegally all while living off taxpayers’ money in luxury spa hotels with gym access and Michelin star food. And, as the rumour goes, because Britain offers such generous and opulent services to asylum seekers, more and more people are coming to the UK illegally, on illegal boats, so many in fact, that Britain’s getting too full. There’s too many people coming here illegally, living off taxpayers’ money in luxury spa hotels. 

As a result of this rumour, the last few years have seen a massive spike in far-right, anti-migrant protests, including outside hotels known to house people seeking asylum, such as Rotherham’s (luxury spa?) Hotel Inn, which has on separate occasions been the target of missiles and set alight by far-right protestors whilst residents were inside. 

By making these proposals, Mahmood is essentially saying “yes, you’re right” to all the protestors outside hotels. That’s why the proposals received high praise from Farage and Robinson and why we should be very afraid of the repercussions of this rightward lurch in the Overton window. The rumour is far-right propaganda designed to stoke societal divisions, and it has proven very effective. 

In reality, Britain provides asylum seekers with far less than its European counterparts, who host more asylum seekers than Britain. People mainly make the deadly journey across the English Channel because there currently exist no safe routes to enter the UK, and they have familial, colonial, and/or linguistic ties to Britain. Exorbitant money is being spent on asylum housing, but it’s not benefitting the asylum seekers. The subcontracted companies providing the asylum housing (Serco, Mears, and Clearsprings) are making a fortune from taxpayers' money while asylum seekers are living in damp, mouldy, rat infested homes or hotels, and if they do live in catered accommodation, receive inedible, undercooked fast-food and are given around £5 per week to live on (which would barely cover my monthly sim card costs, so rule out any bus travel or leisure activities). The process of claiming asylum involves two interviews assessing the legitimacy of the asylum claim, where people are invasively asked to recount their experiences that led to them fleeing their home country; providing contradictory answers or not being able to provide enough evidence results in penalisation and either being returned to your home country or having to re-claim asylum without any recognition of the impact of trauma on memory recollection. The asylum system is broken. It’s broken because it’s traumatising, and it’s making lots of money for private companies.  

The reason the far-right is able to galvanise supporters in Britain today is because over the last decade, living in Britain has got harder. Cost of living keeps going up, unemployment keeps going up, and waiting lists (bar a very brief drop) keep going up. Right now, things in Britain are as bleak as its weather. Billionaires can hide behind an army of legal and media warriors. Refugees cannot. Mainstream media, in its bid to keep profits rising, has found jumping on the xenophobic, divisive rhetoric especially useful in keeping those clicks and views high. But while the asylum system in the UK is costing taxpayers around £5.4 billion a year (much of which is pocketed by the aforementioned private companies subcontracted by the government), tax avoidance costs the UK £36 billion (with the bulk being a wealthy minority using offshore accounts). Capitulating to the far-right won’t make them go away; it will just galvanise them further, because stopping asylum seekers from coming to the UK has never been the endgame for the far-right. 

Want people seeking asylum to integrate into society? How about letting the people who can work, work. Want the asylum system to be fair? How about recognising that the majority of people claiming asylum in the UK have fled their home countries because of a very real threat to their lives. And that the majority have made an exhausting, perilous journey to get here, and that some may need some additional support in being able to recount their experiences. Want people to stop arriving by boats? How about cooperating effectively with other countries and allowing people to come to the UK to claim asylum via safe routes. Want to reduce taxpayer spending on asylum accommodation? How about stopping subcontracting to private corporations who degrade living conditions in order to extract more profits. Want to stop the divisions in society? How about not capitulating to far-right demands and instead calling out misinformation, lies, and racism. And maybe look at where the real wealth created in Britain is going – because it’s not going into the NHS, or reducing shopping costs, or travel costs, or making day-to-day life in Britain better; it’s most likely travelling by private jet to the Caymans.

Image: Eliot Lord

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