The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill was introduced to Parliament on 30 January 2025.

Responding to the introduction of the Bill, Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, said: 

“We welcome the Government’s commitment to restoring order in the asylum system. By scrapping the costly and fantastical Rwanda plan, repealing much of the previous government’s draconian legislation and overturning the pause on processing asylum applications, the Government has averted a meltdown, cutting delays and preventing higher hotel costs.

“The Government is also right to seek to tackle the vicious smuggling gangs, but we are very concerned that by creating new offences, many refugees themselves could also be prosecuted, which has already been happening in some cases. This would be a gross miscarriage of justice.

“Criminalising men, women and children who have fled conflicts in countries such as Sudan does not disrupt the smuggling gangs’ business model. When a refugee is clambering into a boat with an armed criminal threatening them, they are not thinking about UK laws but are simply trying to stay alive. The most effective way to break the smuggling gangs’ grip is to stop refugees from getting into the boats in the first place, which means giving them a legal way to apply for asylum in the UK without crossing the Channel.

“A properly reformed system would have safe and legal routes for refugees, accurate first-time decisions about who can stay and who must leave, and meaningful support to help refugees integrate into their communities and contribute to Britain. Without these measures, the Government risks failing to restore public confidence by creating a system that delivers both compassion and control.”