\n<\/p>\n
Shabana Mahmood is to announce changes to the UK\u2019s immigration rules modelled on the Danish system, largely seen as among the most stringent in Europe, the Guardian understands.<\/p>\n
Last month, the home secretary dispatched officials to Denmark to study its border control and asylum policies. Denmark\u2019s tighter rules on family reunions and restricting some refugees to a temporary stay are among the policies being looked at.<\/p>\n
Mahmood will announce the changes later this month, according to the BBC, which first reported the plans.<\/p>\n
The proposals have drawn scorn from some Labour MPs, particularly from those on the left of the party, who said it was a \u201cdangerous path\u201d to take, although others want the government to go further.<\/p>\n
In Denmark, refugees who have been personally targeted by a foreign regime are more likely to be given protection, while those fleeing conflicts are usually only allowed to remain in the country on a temporary basis. Denmark itself decides what is a safe country.<\/p>\n
In 2022, the Danish government notified about 1,200 refugees from Damascus in Syria that their residency permits would not be renewed because, breaking with the UN and EU, it judged the region to be safe for refugees to return.<\/p>\n
UK Home Office officials have also been drawn to Denmark\u2019s tighter rules for family reunions. When a refugee granted residency rights wants their partner to join them, there are numerous thresholds that must be met. Both people must be age 24 and above, the partner in Denmark must not have claimed benefits for three years and also has to put up a financial guarantee. Both partners must also pass a Danish language test.<\/p>\n
Denmark has also barred those who live in housing estates designated <\/strong>as \u201cparallel societies\u201d by the government \u2013 where more than 50% of residents are from what it considers to be \u201cnon-western\u201d backgrounds \u2013 from being granted family reunion.<\/p>\n In 2021, Denmark passed a law enabling it to process asylum seekers outside Europe, which drew anger from human rights advocates, the UN and the European Commission.<\/p>\n The Labour MP Clive Lewis was deeply critical of the British government\u2019s plans to adopt the Danish system in an effort to outflank Reform UK.<\/p>\n \u201cDenmark\u2019s Social Democrats have gone down what I would call a hardcore approach to immigration,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ve adopted many of the talking points of what we would call the far right.<\/p>\n \u201cLabour does need to win back some Reform-leaning voters but you can\u2019t do that at the cost of losing progressive votes.\u201d<\/p>\n Nadia Whittome, the Labour MP for Nottingham East and a member of Labour\u2019s Socialist Campaign Group, said it would be a \u201cdangerous path\u201d to take and that some of the Danish policies, especially those around \u201cparallel societies\u201d, are \u201cundeniably racist\u201d.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Get the day\u2019s headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cI think this is a dead end \u2013 morally, politically and electorally,\u201d she told BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme.<\/p>\n Some Labour MPs from the centre of the party told the BBC off the record that they would oppose the implementation of Danish immigration policies in the UK.<\/p>\n However, Jo White, who leads a group of Labour MPs in \u201cred wall\u201d seats in the Midlands and the north of England, said she would like to see the government go further in the Danish direction.<\/p>\n \u201cThe consequences are that we go into a general election where Reform will be the biggest challenger in most Labour seats \u2026 and we will be annihilated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Mahmood, who was appointed as home secretary in September, told the Labour conference that \u201ccontribution to this country is a condition\u201d, while announcing a number of requirements that must be met by people seeking asylum, including plans to increase the period from when indefinite leave to remain is usually granted, from five years to 10 years.<\/p>\n She has come under fire from charities who accused her of \u201cscapegoating\u201d migrants. After her conference speech, more than 100 charities including Refugee Action, Save the Children and Oxfam called on Mahmood to find solutions to problems with housing, the climate crisis and the NHS, and to end the use of \u201cperformative policies\u201d that cause harm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Shabana Mahmood is to announce changes to the UK\u2019s immigration rules modelled on the Danish system, largely seen as among the most stringent in Europe, the Guardian understands. Last month, the home secretary dispatched officials to Denmark to study its border control and asylum policies. Denmark\u2019s tighter rules on family reunions and restricting some refugees<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[3903,2917,2317,18176,2081,480,18854,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-32737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-announce","9":"tag-asylum","10":"tag-danish","11":"tag-emulate","12":"tag-immigration","13":"tag-plans","14":"tag-stringent","15":"tag-system"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}