The government’s new immigration ‘shake up’ will only punish torture survivors like me

Twenty years ago, I arrived in the UK after surviving torture. My journey from central Africa took seven months. I had almost nothing with me, but I still had my life even if it seemed to be shattered. Through specialist therapy at Freedom from Torture, I slowly started to put the pieces of back together. And later, I began to support others who’d survived similar horrors.

Now, the government wants to make life even harder for people like me. Under the new proposals announced earlier this week, refugees, including torture survivors, will only be granted temporary protection status of two and a half years. With the intention of returning anyone whose country is, at the point, considered safe, the Home Office will be repeatedly reviewing these. Permanent settlement will, for most refugees, take 20 years.

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People who have made their homes here, found a secure job or started a business, are supporting their children through their GCSEs will now live in constant terror that the roots they have laid will be torn up.

These reforms will punish people who’ve already lost everything. Refugees’ lives are already shaped by trauma and the constant struggle for stability. We know recovery depends on feeling safe, but temporary protection means you can never fully settle. Every couple of years, survivors will be forced to relive the horrors they endured and face the very real prospect that they’ll be sent back to the hands of their torturers. That constant threat, knowing that your life here can be undone at any moment, is psychologically devastating. And it will keep people trapped in limbo.

Perhaps one of the most cruel changes is that family reunion will become almost impossible for most refugees. For many survivors, the hope of being with their loved ones again is the only thing that keeps them going and when that hope is realised, family unity becomes an essential building block to their recovery. Imagine not knowing if you will ever see your partner or children again and having no power to bring them to safety?

Taken together, these reforms will make refugee integration almost impossible. How can anyone put down strong roots if they don’t know whether they will be allowed to stay? How can you build a business or plan for your children’s future? How can you form meaningful connections in your community when the government is telling you that you are only here on borrowed time? Even survivors who have lived here for decades will feel like the rug can be pulled from under their feet at any moment. This level of uncertainty is not just unhelpful; it’s deeply harmful.

The home secretary says she wants to heal a divided society, yet these proposals will do the opposite. Treating refugees as outsiders who can never fully belong will only deepen the sense of “us and them” that is pulling communities apart.

Also proposed this week are reforms to rush asylum appeals through a process that will deny refugees a fair hearing of their case. Survivors often struggle to disclose what has happened to them. They need time, stability and, crucially, access to a legal representative with whom they have a relationship of trust, for those details to come out. Fast-tracking asylum claims or restricting access to appeal dramatically increases the risk of poor quality and unsafe decisions. When quality is sacrificed for the sake of speed, refugees are in danger of being sent back to persecution. We all want a process that is efficient, but these are life and death decisions that cannot be rushed.

Most people in the UK want an asylum system rooted in fairness and compassion. Refugees are not outsiders. We are your neighbours, colleagues and friends. We contribute to our communities, our economy and our shared culture. Most people in this country are caring and compassionate, but these proposals betray that kindness. They will not fix the system, they will not bring us together and they will not help people to rebuild their lives.

We must choose a system that is effective and humane, one that gives people a fair hearing and, if recognised as needing our protection, the long-term stability required to rebuild their lives and to belong. We must come together to reject these reforms and demand better.

Kolbassia Haoussou is the survivor leadership and influencing director at Freedom from Torture.

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