Foreign
sex offenders will be banned from claiming asylum in the UK, says Home Office
Amendment to
bill would affect anyone who qualifies for sex offender register, but charities
concerned that move is being rushed
Rajeev Syal
and Pippa Crerar
Mon 28 Apr
2025 22.30 BST
Foreign
nationals convicted of sex offences will be banned from claiming asylum in the
UK, Yvette Cooper has said, as Labour attempts to fight off the threat from the
Reform party before Thursday’s local elections.
For the
first time, anyone from overseas who qualifies for the sex offender register
will be excluded from refugee protections.
The
development was questioned by human rights organisations concerned that
“irresponsible” changes to immigration law are being rushed through to
challenge a surge in the polls from Nigel Farage’s party.
Keir Starmer
has accused Reform and the Tories of attempting to “con” the British public
because they are refusing to admit that they are preparing a coalition deal.
The new
measure will be introduced in an amendment to the border security, asylum and
immigration bill being considered by parliament, the Home Office said.
Under the
refugee convention, countries can refuse asylum to those who have committed a
“particularly serious crime”. In the UK, a criminal handed a prison sentence of
one year or more can be defined as having committed a “serious crime”.
Officials
said the planned changes will mean that anyone convicted of a crime and placed
on the sex offender register will be categorised as having convicted a
“particularly serious crime”, regardless of the length of sentence they
receive.
Home Office
sources have not said how many more foreign national offenders may be removed
from the UK as a result of the change. The department has conducted an impact
assessment on the new policy which is yet to be released.
According to
official statistics, there were 451 foreign nationals serving sentences of less
than 12 months in England and Wales at the end of March. There is no breakdown
showing how many of those are sex offenders.
Offenders
who face removal could still attempt to claim a right to remain in the UK under
the European convention on human rights, sources indicated. The new rule will
also apply to foreign offenders who were convicted of sex offences abroad.
Steve
Valdez-Symonds, the programme director for refugee and migrant rights at
Amnesty International UK, said the development was “an irresponsible approach
to lawmaking that has long plagued immigration policy”.
He added:
“Rushing through late-stage amendments to major legislation means laws are made
without the full scrutiny and care they demand. It risks creating injustice and
dysfunction.
“Excluding
individuals from refugee protections without a proper, individualised
assessment undermines fairness, hinders integration, and condemns people to
live in limbo, unable to move forward with their lives.”
The Home
Office will also direct courts to reduce the time they take to consider appeals
from asylum seekers in accommodation.
The
amendment will also set a 24-week target for first-tier immigration tribunals
to decide on the appeals of those living in asylum seeker supported
accommodation, or who are foreign national offenders, in a bid to cut the
asylum backlog.
Artificial
intelligence will be used to support those processing asylum claims, the Home
Office said, such as by summarising interview transcripts and accessing country
advice. Using the technology could save case workers up to an hour per case,
according to the department.
Enver
Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, welcomed efforts to speed
up the appeals process, but said that extra funding would be required to make
it work.
He said: “A
faster appeals process cannot be magicked up out of thin air and must not come
at the cost of people’s access to justice. Previous efforts to speed up this
process have often led to a bigger court backlog due to poor quality initial
decisions.
“The use of
AI therefore must be carefully considered before potentially life or death
decisions become a testing ground for the technology,” he said.
Reform is on
course to take hundreds of council seats and is ahead in the race for two metro
mayoralties – Lincolnshire and Hull – as well as the Runcorn byelection, a
constituency which Starmer has not yet visited.
While much
of the focus has been on the Tory response to the Farage threat, with Kemi
Badenoch’s party expected to suffer a devastating night on Thursday, Labour
insiders are also anxious about how they will perform against Reform in their
post-industrial heartlands.
There is
some alarm on the backbenches over the government’s response to date, with MPs
fearing the party’s position on issues is reached as a result of electoral
considerations – such as migration, Europe and social issues.
“We need to
be careful about lurching to the right in response to Reform,” one MP said. “We
can do better than that. We should be arguing for Labour values especially on
immigration. If we want economic growth, legal migration has to play a part in
that.”
The number
of migrants who have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel this year has
edged closer to 10,000, at the start of what is forecast to be the warmest week
of 2025 so far.
It emerged
last year that a man who had carried out a chemical attack in Clapham, south
London, had been granted asylum despite being a convicted sex offender and on
the sex offender register.
Abdul Ezedi,
who doused his former girlfriend in alkaline before taking his own life, was
granted asylum in 2020 by a judge who accepted that he was a Christian convert.
He had been
given a suspended sentence at Newcastle crown court on 9 January 2018 after
pleading guilty to sexual assault and exposure and had been placed on the sex
offender register for 10 years.
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