Immigration and Asylum Bill

Kamena Dorling

09/07/2026

Over the past decade, the UK has introduced new immigration or asylum legislation almost every year. Yet people seeking safety are still left waiting years for final asylum decisions, forced into poverty while they wait, and too often falling through the gaps of a failing system. Survivors of trafficking are too often not identified and denied the support they need to recover and reduce the risk of further exploitation. The Immigration and Asylum Bill does not address these fundamental problems – it worsens them.

The Bill will introduce new complex and bureaucratic systems and instead of fixing an asylum system where two-thirds of refused claims are overturned on appeal, will make it harder for refugees and survivors of trafficking and torture to access safety and justice.

It seeks to further erode the right to private and family life, under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and introduce a new ‘refugee tax’ where recognised refugees have to pay back the cost of the support they were forced to rely on while awaiting decisions on their asylum claims.

This Bill will also significantly weaken the UK’s response to trafficking and modern slavery. It will deny access to identification, protection, support and recovery to many survivors. This approach punishes survivors, will embolden traffickers and in doing so enable exploitation to thrive, harming individuals, communities and our economy.

This Bill continues a destructive approach of prioritising an immigration control agenda over safeguarding survivors of a serious crime. The government has used hostile and unevidenced narratives of system “misuse” and misleading language of “last-minute modern slavery claims” to ‘justify’ weakening modern slavery protections. This creates distrust and scepticism that puts survivors at risk, drives this crime underground and emboldens traffickers.

Among other things, the Bill aims to:

Replace the judge-led appeals tribunal with a new appeals body with senior members appointed by the Home Office and adjudicators who are not judges or even necessarily legally qualified.
Narrow the definition of family life and restrict how children's family and private life is considered in Article 8 decisions.
Introduce a new 'core protection' status that combines refugee status and humanitarian protection
Create the power to require recognised refugees who've received asylum support and accommodation to pay back the cost of that support.
Punish trafficking survivors for sharing their experiences ‘late’, despite delayed disclosure being a well-documented trauma response, not a sign of dishonesty.
Ban support for certain survivors who’ve committed a crime, even if it stemmed directly from their exploitation.
Stop grants of permission to stay in the UK for recovery to non-British national survivors of trafficking.

Survivors need safety, stability and a fair hearing of their asylum and trafficking claims. This Bill does not offer that. Parliament should reject these damaging proposals and commit to creating asylum and trafficking systems that are fair, evidence-based and centred on protection.

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