UK to tighten family member rules for asylum cases
UK suspends refugee family reunion applications
(about 8 hours later)
55 small boats were recorded crossing the Channel in August, the lowest August figure since 2019 - any seized small boats, motors and inflatable gear is logged and stored at Dover
55 small boats were recorded crossing the Channel in August, the lowest August figure since 2019 - any seized small boats, motors and inflatable gear is logged and stored at Dover
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is to announce a tightening of rules for migrants granted asylum bringing their families to the UK.
The government is temporarily suspending new applications for a scheme allowing refugees to bring their family members to the UK.
As MPs return to Westminster on Monday, she is expected to set out criteria for family members - including tougher English language standards and access to sufficient funds - and outline reforms to the asylum appeals system.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the move, in force from this week, would mean refugees face the same restrictions as other migrants hoping to bring family to join them in the UK.
After a summer dominated by criticism over the use of hotels for migrants arriving on small boats, Cooper will say an overhaul of a "broken" asylum system seeks to end their use.
This generally means someone must earn at least £29,000 a year and provide suitable accommodation, while their family member may need to demonstrate a basic level of English.
The Conservatives said that the proposed rule change was a "tiny tweak" and that the government was in "complete denial" about the scale of the "border crisis".
Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said "tweaking the family reunion rules are not enough" to deal with the scale of the UK's "border security crisis".
When a person is granted asylum in the UK, they can apply to bring their family too - but Cooper believes changes to policies across Europe mean the UK is now out of kilter with its neighbours and restrictions are needed.
It comes on the day Parliament returned after a summer dominated by criticism over the use of hotels for migrants arriving on small boats.
Cooper will also highlight the National Crime Agency's efforts in tackling people smugglers, saying it led 347 disruptions of immigration crime networks in 2024-25 - the highest level on record and a 40% increase on the previous 12 months.
On Monday, Cooper announced the government would temporarily suspend new applications under the existing dedicated refugee family reunion route that allows those granted asylum in the UK to bring their family with "no conditions".
Cooper will also talk about the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), an international human rights treaty that has been used by lawyers attempting to halt deportations of failed asylum seekers.
Cooper said the rules "were designed many years ago to help families separated by war, conflict and persecution" but are now out of kilter with the UK's neighbours and restrictions are needed.
European countries like Denmark and Switzerland make refugees wait two years before applying to reunite with family, giving them time to find work and housing to support loved ones when they arrive, Cooper said.
In contrast, in the UK "those applications come in on average in around a month", often before the refugee even leaves asylum housing, she said.
As a result, Cooper said many refugee families are applying to councils for help to stop them falling into homelessness - making up more than a quarter of homelessness cases in some local authorities.
Refugees applying to bring family members to the UK will be covered by regular immigration rules, which set several restrictions.
Further reforms to family reunion routes will be outlined later this year, with the aim of introducing changes by the spring.
The government has been under pressure after a summer of headlines around small boat crossings and protests over asylum-seeker hotels.
Responding to the rule changes, Philp said the government's "failure" to tackle the border crisis was driving "protests up and down the country".
"Where those protests are peaceful, I support them," he added.
"If this government were serious about fixing this problem, they would know that little tweaks here and there are not enough," he said.
Philp urged the government to revive the scrapped Rwanda plan, which aimed to deter small boats crossings in the Channel by sending some people who arrived in the UK illegally to the east African country.
There have been protests against hotels housing asylum seekers over the summer
The government has promised to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by 2029.
However, in an interview with the BBC earlier, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he "would like to bring that forward".
He told BBC Radio 5Live's Matt Chorley: "Local people by and large do not want these hotels in their towns, in their place, and nor do I."
But he said the only way to empty them was by working through asylum cases in an "orderly" way, as quickly as possible, and then returning people who should not be in the UK.
Cooper said the government was also planning to change the "interpretation" of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), an international human rights treaty that has been used by lawyers attempting to halt deportations of failed asylum seekers.
There have been growing calls in recent weeks - not only from those on the right, but also from some former Labour ministers - to either withdraw from the convention, or suspend elements of it.
There have been growing calls in recent weeks - not only from those on the right, but also from some former Labour ministers - to either withdraw from the convention, or suspend elements of it.
The government is adamant it will not do that, but is reviewing how the treaty's rights to family life apply to immigration cases.
The government is adamant it will not do that, but is reviewing how the treaty's rights to family life apply to immigration cases.
Cooper is likely to give more detail on government plans to change domestic law in order to make clearer to judges how that part of the treaty should be interpreted.
The Conservatives have called for the ECHR to be "disapplied" from immigration matters and are reviewing whether the UK should quit the treaty entirely.
The Conservatives are reviewing whether the UK should quit the ECHR, while Reform UK leader Nigel Farage supports leaving the treaty.
Meanwhile, Reform UK supports leaving the treaty.
More than 28,000 migrants have reached the UK in small boats so far in 2025 and more than 50,000 have crossed since Labour came into power in July 2024.
Cooper also said the government expects the first migrant returns under the UK's deal with France will take place "later this month".
In August 55 small boats crossed the Channel. It was the lowest figure for the month since 2019.
More than 28,000 migrants have reached the UK in small boats so far this year, higher than the same period in 2024.
In August, 55 small boats crossed the Channel. It was the lowest figure for the month since 2019.
Yet the smuggling gangs seem to be putting more people on each boat - last month there was an average of 65 individuals per vessel.
Yet the smuggling gangs seem to be putting more people on each boat - last month there was an average of 65 individuals per vessel.
It comes with the government under increasing pressure to end its reliance on asylum hotels.
On Friday the Appeal Court overturned a temporary injunction which would have prevented the Home Office from housing asylum seekers at the Bell Hotel in Epping and it was seen as a possible precedent for legal challenges elsewhere.
Epping Forest District Council will meet later on Monday to decide its next course of action, including whether to take its attempt to prevent the hotel being used for asylum seekers to the Supreme Court.
In the Commons, the home secretary is expected to say the NCA efforts have led to "a significant and long term impact" on people smugglers.
The government's planned reforms to the asylum system announced in the last few weeks include a new independent body prioritising cases involving asylum accommodation and foreign national offenders within 24 weeks, and a new fast track appeals process.
Cooper will also give an update on the UK's returns deal with France, where some migrants arriving in the UK on small boats crossing the English Channel will be detained and returned under a pilot scheme lasting 11 months.
She is expected to announce that the first deportations to France are due to take place in the coming weeks.
"Our action to strengthen border security, increase returns and overhaul the broken asylum system are putting much stronger foundations in place so we can fix the chaos we inherited and end costly asylum hotels," she will tell the Commons.
Cooper will say the UK has a "proud record of giving sanctuary to those fleeing persecution" but the system "needs to be properly controlled and managed".
But Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said plans to tighten rules on family members are a "tiny tweak".
"I'm afraid the truth is this is a tiny tweak that will make very little difference," he told BBC Breakfast.
Philp added the government was "in complete denial" about the scale of the "borders crisis".
"To be quite honest, people who cross the channel illegally shouldn't be able to bring any family members over here at all," he said.
"In fact, if the government was serious about fixing this issue, what they would be doing is making sure that everybody who arrives illegally is immediately removed."
A Reform UK spokesman said: "We have seen a record number of crossings since Labour came to power last year with no signs of it slowing."
Reform, they added, had a "detailed plan to deport over 600,000 illegal migrants" in its first term in office if elected. Labour sided "with foreign courts and outdated treaties" while Reform were "on the side of the British people".
Parliament resumes on Monday against a backdrop of protests against hotels housing asylum seekers
A full High Court hearing to decide on a permanent injunction for the Bell Hotel is expected in mid-October.
The government says it plans to stop using hotels for asylum seekers by the end of this Parliament.
Ministers said the judgement on the legal challenge on the Bell Hotel, which was brought by lawyers for the Home Office and the Bell Hotel, would allow the government to do so "in a planned and orderly fashion".
But some councils say they are still pursuing legal action to stop asylum seekers from being housed in hotels in their areas.
Reform UK said all 12 councils it controlled should explore legal options to stop asylum seekers being housed in local hotels.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch urged Tory-run councils pursuing legal action to "keep going" and said advice would be issued to all Conservative councillors following the ruling.
The protests at the Bell Hotel began after an asylum seeker housed there was arrested and subsequently charged with several offences, including an alleged sexual assault on a 14-year-old girl.
Protests against the housing of asylum seekers at hotels - as well as counter-protests - continued to take place across England and Scotland at the weekend including in Epping, London, Gloucester, Portsmouth, Warrington, Norwich and Falkirk.
