There is widespread consensus that too many people are risking their lives taking dangerous journeys to reach the UK to apply for asylum. But while the UK Government has focused on increasingly regressive measures to try and deter people from taking those journeys, including by effectively banning asylum through the Illegal Migration Act, there has been far less energy put into creating safe alternatives that would give people another option.

This paper sets out three key safe routes that the Refugee Council believes should form part of any government’s future plans. It argues for an expansion of resettlement, including community sponsorship, refugee family reunion, and the piloting of a new refugee visa that would allow people with a high likelihood of success to travel to the UK to submit an asylum claim.