UK — Shabana Mahmood, UK Justice Secretary, introduced an immigration and asylum bill to parliament. The proposed legislation includes requiring asylum seekers to pay £10,000 for settled status and establishing a new appeals system that would operate without judges.

The bill also plans to place new restrictions on trafficking claims. It will change the Modern Slavery Act by requiring modern slavery claims to be lodged within a specific timeframe after arrival in the UK and will limit individuals to one modern slavery claim. Furthermore, the legislation seeks to reform claims made under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Home Office released documents indicating that new limits on article 8 claims are projected to lead to an additional 11,700 rejected claims annually. An internal analysis from the Home Office stated that 34,000 asylum seekers were granted the right to remain in the UK last year based on article 8. The department estimated the lifetime cost of each migrant who invoked European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) rights to be £141,000 after tax.

Under the bill, article 8 claims will only be allowed for a tightened definition of a "core family unit," which includes spouses, parents, and children. The legislation proposes that individuals who establish families while residing illegally in the UK will no longer be able to use their spouse or children to prevent deportation. However, a Home Office impact assessment anticipates that 55% of those refused under article 8 reforms are expected to remain in the UK.

In other developments, the Home Office is planning to utilize more former military barracks to house thousands of asylum seekers. The department is also closing 20 hotels in England that were used to accommodate asylum seekers. Imran Hussain, director of external affairs at the Refugee Council, stated that the bill "would create a whole new architecture of bureaucracy for the Home Office by building a new appeals system and imposing an unfair extra tax on refugees, while ignoring the poor quality of initial decisions that is actually driving significant delays and costs." He added that "If the government is serious about building a fair and functioning asylum system, it must start by breaking the cycle of quick fixes and bills that create long-term chaos."