A comment from Mainstream's Interim Council on the second reading of the Immigration and Asylum Bill, taking place today👇

"No confirmation has yet been made of any resumption of this route, which provides a lifeline for thousands of families separated by war." www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

To prevent further harm and trauma, the Government must urgently reinstate the refugee family reunion route. Families belong together. 2/2

The suspension of family reunion disproportionately harms women and children. Analysis by the @refugeecouncil.bsky.social estimates that over 16,000 people have been: ❌Unable to reunite with their families ❌Trapped in conflict zones or forced to take dangerous journeys to safety and reunion 1/2

The Home Office have announced new sponsorship routes to allow a few hundred people to come to the UK. That’s good, but @refugeecouncil.bsky.social estimates 16,000 people have been prevented from applying for family reunion since it was paused last September www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Ahead of the second reading of the Immigration and Asylum Bill on Monday, here’s @refugeecouncil.bsky.social’s briefing. We particularly focused on the refugee tax, including what the Home Office describe as the safeguard against making people destitute www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/stay-informe...

This is also me saying that if you’re interested at all in asylum and immigration stuff, and you’re not following @sonial77.bsky.social, then you really should consider rectifying that.

I hadn't noticed until I read @sonial77.bsky.social's substack that the immigration rules changes laid yesterday contain a significant change to the asylum process (despite the explanatory note saying it's "minor"). From 3 August, people can be refused asylum without a substantive interview.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights have launched their legislative scrutiny of the Immigration and Asylum Bill. Deadline for written submissions is 1 September. committees.parliament.uk/committee/93...

Very sensible reasoned amendment tabled by the Lib Dem’s declining to the give the Immigration and Asylum Bill a second reading. MPs debate on Monday. commonsbusiness.parliament.uk/Document/106...

80 backbenchers have signed what was intended to be a private letter to Burnham [which has leaked] about the need for significant changes to the settlement & asylum reforms. There is a fair amount of frontbench sympathy for this inews.co.uk/news/politic...

New analysis from @refugeecouncil.bsky.social shows the huge cost to the taxpayer of poor quality Home Office asylum decisions. We estimate it will cost between £974 million and £1.2 billion supporting people currently in the appeals backlog who will have their initial refusal overturned.

New immigration rules published. Main changes (from the explanatory statement): www.gov.uk/government/p...

Section 49 and 50 of the Border Security, Immigration and Asylum Act will come into force on 12 August. This creates a deadline of 24 weeks for asylum appeals made by someone in asylum accommodation to be heard, and the same for some deportation cases www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/76...

The second reading of the Immigration and Asylum Bill will be on Monday 13 July, so squeezing it in before the summer recess and the transition to a new PM.

Good to see that the Justice Select Committee is having a session on the appeals changes in the new immigration and asylum bill next week committees.parliament.uk/event/27812/...

Here's a response from the Home Office to HASC on the family returns consultation. The Home Office have committed to publishing the response on gov.uk (which they didn't do with the consultation), but still can't/won't provide some vital data on impact committees.parliament.uk/publications...

Windrush Lessons Learnt: "Warning signs and messages...were not heeded. Instead the policy was promoted because of a resolute conviction that it would be effective and should be vigorously pursued. Warnings by external stakeholders, individuals and organisations were not given enough consideration."

Revealed preferences suggest this 37% drop in small boat nunbers (first two quarters) is treated as ×10-x50 times less newsworthy than a 37% increase has been. Given high salience of the issue, should broadcasters try to check/balance that instinct?

The detail is worse. Also the actual estimated £ costs > benefits. The "estimate" to the contrary is just an assertion

It’s hard enough to run a functioning asylum system, but the package of polices the Government is enacting on the refugee tax, temporary leave and longer settlement means the Home Office will need a whole new system for refugees as well, up to and beyond 20 years after they have been granted.

Now with added Explanatory Notes. Down to 8 unresolved amendments and falling. Still need to add a feedback button for reporting any errors etc. This will remain free and I hope it is helpful. Proper write-up from @alexinlaw.bsky.social is incoming for the blog. bills.freemovement.org.uk

The immigration and asylum bill page exists, but as of a few second ago, no published bill bills.parliament.uk/bills/4254/p...

There's an urgent question and then two statements in the Commons this afternoon, which means the Immigration and Asylum Bill will probably be introduced around 3.15/3.30pm.

I wonder whether the Home Office will bother publishing a response to the independent appeals body consultation, before publishing a draft bill to introduce it on Tueaday www.gov.uk/government/c...

One of the particularly pernicious elements of this policy is it will hit the most vulnerable hardest. It’s the poorest refugees who will have received support and it’s those with barriers to work, e.g caring responsibilities, disabilities, trauma, who won’t pay and so will be denied settlement.

Where have these German penalties been in previous tournaments?

Refugees will have to pay £10k to get the right to stay permanently in the UK, as government adds new £ conditions to its proposal that it could take 20 years for refugees to stay, after 6 reviews of their temporary status, every 3 years

Sorting out the asylum system is not just about processing people more quickly or safe routes to stop the boats - it also means putting integration not ill will at the heart of their future in this country.

The latest reveal from tomorrow’s asylum bill - a refugee tax. Asylum support is only available to people who would otherwise be destitute. So this targets those with the least, lumbering refugees with £10k of debt just when they’re trying to get on with their lives www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

UNHCR has raised serious concerns about the government's new asylum appeals body, warning that using unqualified adjudicators risks repeating Australia's failed experiment — which actually increased delays and poor decisions. We've looked at the key recommendations in our latest piece.

For context, in the year to March 2026, 36,406 people came to the UK on a safe and legal route – 40 percent through the Ukraine Schemes. This was just over 15,300 fewer people than in the year leading up to the last General Election. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

The UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS) was supposed to be the flagship global resettlement scheme. When announced in 2019, 5,000 people were supposed to arrive in the first year. seven years later and fewer than 4,500 have arrived in total.

UNHCR‘s concerns over the proposed new immigration & asylum appeals body, including potential competence & independence of decision-makers, lack of access to legal advice and whether efforts would be better focussed on getting initial decisions right rather than tinkering with the appeals process

More safe routes are good, but these need to be seen for what they are - numbers will be in the 100s and arrivals not until next year. Meanwhile, this government closed the Afghan resettlement schemes and has "paused" refugee family reunion, which helped 10,000s www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

There’s a written statement on Monday’s Commons Order paper on asylum accommodation, 4 days after the announcement has actually been made commonsbusiness.parliament.uk/Document/106... Presumably there will also be lots of briefing over the weekend about the bill before it’s published on Tuesday.

I know failing to adjudicate in disagreements *between* departments has been a recurring theme in Starmer's premiership, but this failure to adjudicate in one *within* a department (in which, let's be clear, nobody comes out looking good) is further proof that the heat is getting to everyone

7. We keep saying it: if the government wants a fast and fair asylum system, it must reform the initial interview and decision-making process. Everything else flows from that. Fast and unfair decisions just create future problems more quickly.

Here we go: freemovement.org.uk/borders-insp...

Any coverage of the asylum accommodation announcement should also be referencing this ICIBI report - the desperately poor state of asylum decision making is a key driver for the demand for accommodation being so high, and the main blocker to reducing it. MOD sites aren’t needed - good decisions are

Looking at the most recent stats, there were over 18k people in all Home Office accommodation from either Afghanistan or Iran. Large numbers of people are not being returned to either country anytime soon. Granting leave to that group would cover around 90% of the hotel population.

Refugee Council proposed an entirely pragmatic way to halve it in one quarter (save 18+ months) Grant leave to work + responsibiity to house yourself for 15k historic backlog cases (2025) from 6 countries where nobody can be returned. www-media.refugeecouncil.org.uk/media/docume...

THIS is why the asylum appeal success rate is so high. It’s not a bunch of tree-hugging judges. It’s a bunch of utterly demoralised, very junior, badly-trained, badly-led officials at the Home Office consistently making bad decisions

Colin's pulling out some of the key bits from the ICIBI report showing just how bad decision making has got. It could be a very long thread!

This report is absolutely damning on the quality of asylum decision making. Shows that the focus on making quick decisions was at the cost of any real consideration of quality, with poor recruitment and training of staff, no clear leadership, and a lack of feedback loops when appeals were being lost

The long awaited @icibi.bsky.social report on asylum casework has been published. This should form the basis of asylum reform, making sure the system does its most important job correctly - getting decisions right first time www.gov.uk/government/n...

Two men who fled extreme danger in Afghanistan and Sudan have been handed prison sentences for 'endangering life at sea’, a cruel new offence that punishes the very people it claims to protect. Read the piece by @vickytaylor.bsky.social for @opendemocracy.net www.opendemocracy.net/a-cruel-new-...

Given how hard we and colleagues have to fight for clients to get status relying on Family and Private life, I don't buy this justification in the slightest. We have very strict rules around article 8.

A change in PM should be a chance to rethink, but it appears that the immigration and asylum bill will be introduced next week, a bill that will do nothing to help the asylum system run more smoothly while making life harder for those seeking protection in the UK. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Thinking of @praxisprojects.bsky.social service users who live in unsuitable housing, struggle with destitution and poverty, who are at risk of homelessness or rough sleeping. Extreme temperatures are unmanageable in these conditions and it's dangerous/scary. Migrant justice is climate justice.