Did Labour just abandon its promise for a fairer asylum system?

The UK government has recently unveiled a new immigration white paper, and the prime minister has signalled a tougher stance on migration – but missing from both is a commitment to the basic rights and dignity of people seeking asylum. These developments risk entrenching the same punitive approach that has already pushed the asylum system into crisis.

For years, successive governments have failed to uphold even the most basic standards of decency. Our joint research, published in 2023, uncovered children missing months of school while trapped in hotels housing asylum seekers, black mould growing on the walls, and entire families forced to share single rooms for over a year, often with broken plumbing and no facilities to cook or wash clothes.

Last month, the chair of Reform UK declared that people seeking asylum should be refused housing in areas under their control. This kind of political opportunism is not new, but it’s finding firmer ground in today’s hostile climate. The Labour government, which once talked about breaking from the past and rebuilding trust in the UK’s asylum system, now appears to be moving in the wrong direction.

Read more:

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• UK immigration policy is stuck in a race to the bottom – with human traffickers the only winners

The asylum system is a reflection of the values we choose to uphold as a society. But instead, we are watching a politics of dehumanisation unfold in real time. When politicians treat people seeking asylum as a threat rather than as individuals fleeing persecution, they are sending a message not just to those families, but to all of us: that rights are conditional, and that compassion is negotiable.

One mother we spoke to described how while living in a hotel in Hounslow, in west London, her five-year-old son who has autism and high support needs, is forced to sleep on the floor because he requires a special medical bed, which is not available in the hotel.

Both the white paper and recent comments by the prime minister suggest a hardening approach. While framed as a matter of fairness and control, these proposals risk doubling down on deterrence and exclusion. Policies that focus on punitive measures over practical solutions ignore the real issues – unsafe conditions, prolonged limbo for people seeking asylum, and denial of rights.

In a recent letter to the Home Office, Just Fair and Human Rights Watch said that the government needs to ensure that families seeking safety are housed in humane, community-based accommodations, not institutional settings that isolate them and add to their trauma. Officials need to ensure children’s access to education, health care and legal support. And they should not tolerate attempts by local authorities to opt out of their obligations under international law.

The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights also has recently highlighted the UK’s failure to provide adequate conditions for people seeking asylum. The UN called for immediate reform. Its message was clear: the current approach is not only inadequate, it violates fundamental rights.

There are clear, achievable steps the UK government can take now: end the prolonged use of hotels and institutional accommodations; expand and properly resource community-based housing; ensure full access to essential services from day one; lift the ban on working for people seeking asylum, and stop scapegoating  people seeking asylum for wider failures in housing, social security, or local government funding.

Lifting the ban on working, is a relatively simple policy change that would allow thousands of people to contribute to the economy, support themselves and their families, and reduce reliance on the state – all without any cost to the public purse. At a time when resources are under strain, this is common sense – and long overdue.

Labour is rapidly squandering its opportunity to restore fairness and rebuild credibility in the asylum system. To do that, they need concrete, human rights-centred reforms – and the political courage to stand up against those who would turn people into political props.

We can continue to slide toward a system defined by delay, hostility, and exclusion. Or we can begin to build something better: a rights-based approach to asylum that puts dignity at its centre.

A more just, humane system is within reach – and the UK government has promised fairness and reform. That promise must start with ensuring that no child continues to grow up in these conditions.

Alex Firth is an advocacy officer at Just Fair and Michael Garcia Bochenek is a senior legal adviser at Human Rights Watch.

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