When refugees receive a decision on their asylum claim, they are given a short period to “move on” from asylum accommodation and find somewhere else to live, and at this point risk becoming homeless. The Home Office has announced that, from Monday 9 December 2024, they are extending the ‘move-on’ period from 28 to 56 days on a trial basis until June 2025.

This means that newly recognised refugees will now have up to 56 days to find accommodation after they have had been granted refugee status.

At the Refugee Council, we welcome this news. It is a change that we have been campaigning on for a long time and was a key recommendation in our recent report Rescue, Recovery and Reform: Towards an effective asylum system.

Advocating for further reform

While we are pleased with this news, we want the Government to ensure that this change is made permanent and that they follow our recommendation to begin the ‘move-on’ period after people have received the correct documentation, including access to eVisas.

In response to the news, Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, said:

It is genuinely positive that the government is putting in place a pilot to give refugees more time to move on with their lives. For too long refugees have been at risk of becoming homeless at exactly the point the Government grants them safety. Extending the time people have to move on should give men, women and children who have lost everything more of a breathing space to find accommodation and work as they rebuild their lives and contribute to our communities.  

But it’s equally important that people receive the right documents at the right time which should be at the beginning of the move on period. Without this safeguard, we remain concerned that people who have come to this country in search of safety will continue to be made homeless as a result of bad practice.