Refugees face crackdown on bringing family members to Britain as Home Secretary seeks to reclaim migration initiative from Farage with major shake-up

Migrants who are granted asylum face new curbs on bringing family members into Britain under a crackdown to be announced by Yvette Cooper.

The Home Secretary will use a Commons statement on Monday to try to seize back the initiative on migration after record small-boat arrivals this year and a growing public backlash over asylum hotels.

It follows a five-fold increase in the number of refugees’ family members granted visas to come to the UK, from 4,300 in 2023 to 20,600 in the year to this March, adding to a migrant housing crisis that has provoked nationwide protests.

It comes as MPs return to Westminster for the first time since July after a summer that has seen Nigel Farage’s Reform UKconsolidate its lead in the polls. Sir Keir Starmer will seek to re-set his Government this week with a reshuffle of middle-ranking ministers ahead of a Budget threatening tax rises and a state visit by Donald Trump, the US president.

With councils threatening to continue their battle to shut asylum hotels, she will assure MPs that the Government’s overhaul of the asylum system will mean an end to their use by the end of the Parliament in 2029.

Despite a record 29,000 migrants crossing the Channel so far this year, she will claim the National Crime Agency’s record 347 disruptions of people-smuggling gangs this year has contributed to the lowest number of small-boat arrivals in August since 2019.

The crackdown on refugee family reunions comes after The Telegraph revealed last month how the Red Cross was among charities paying for hundreds of families to come to the UK to be reunited with migrants granted asylum, despite growing concerns over housing shortages.

The Red Cross locates, advises and funds the travel costs of up to 1,000 family members a year to come from abroad to join people who have been granted refugee status.

Unlike other European countries, asylum seekers can sponsor wives, partners and children to come to the UK as soon as they are granted refugee status.

Immigration rules also mean that, unlike with other visas, family members coming to the UK are not required to demonstrate that they have the necessary accommodation or income to be able to live in the UK without claiming Universal Credit or housing benefits. There is also no requirement that they have to speak English.

Under the changes, the Home Office said it would aim to bring the UK’s approach more in line with other countries in Europe and ease pressure on local councils where homelessness applications linked to the refugee family route had risen sharply in recent years.

Countries including Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark have introduced mandatory waiting times of up to three years before refugees can bring over their families to join them.

Police clash with anti-migrant protesters in Canary Wharf, LondonCredit: George Cracknell Wright

Refugees seeking to bring over wives, partners or children will also have to ensure they have sufficient money as a unit to live without relying on the taxpayer.

Culled from: telegraph.co.uk