UK to Revise Asylum System, Citing Denmark Model, as Channel Crossings Intensify Political Pressure

UK government announces sweeping asylum reforms

The British government is preparing a major overhaul of its asylum rules, modeled on measures introduced in Denmark, aimed at reducing dangerous English Channel crossings and making it easier to remove people who do not qualify for protection. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is due to set out the plan in the House of Commons on Monday.

Mahmood framed the proposals as a moral mission to secure the borders and heal social divisions around migration — an issue that has bolstered support for the hard-right Reform UK party. She also rejected suggestions that the centre-left Labour government is adopting far-right rhetoric, pointing to her own background as the daughter of migrants.

“People can see huge pressure in their communities and they can also see a system that is broken, and where people are able to flout the rules, abuse the system and get away with it,” Mahmood told the BBC.

Key measures proposed

Officials say the package will:

• Remove the U.K.’s statutory duty, established under EU law in 2005, to guarantee housing and weekly support for asylum seekers — allowing the government to withdraw those provisions in some cases.
• Permit denial of benefits to people who have a legal right to work but refuse available employment, those who break the law, or those working illegally.
• Introduce regular reviews of refugee status to assess whether people can be safely repatriated.
• Create designated safe and legal routes for people to claim asylum, to deter dangerous small-boat crossings.

Numbers and context

Home Office figures show more than 39,000 migrants have arrived by small boat so far this year, slightly higher than the almost 37,000 in 2024 but roughly on par with the year-to-date total in 2022, the highest on record. Small-boat arrivals remain a small fraction of total migration: net migration — the number of people entering the U.K. minus those leaving — rose to over 900,000 in the year to June 2023, partly driven by people fleeing the war in Ukraine and departures from Hong Kong. Net migration fell to 431,000 in the year to June 2025, a decline of 49.9% from 860,000 a year earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Political reaction and controversy

Critics say the changes are unlikely to stop small-boat crossings. Conservative MP Chris Philp described the plans as “tinkering” and argued they would not match the impact of the previously proposed — and now abandoned — Rwanda scheme. “It’s gimmicks. It’s rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,” he told the BBC, calling for faster deportations of people who arrive without authorization.

The new measures come after protests this summer outside hotels housing asylum seekers — sometimes turning violent — following an incident in which a migrant was arrested and later convicted of a sexual assault related to an attempted kiss of a 14-year-old girl.

Denmark model and international reaction

The Home Office says the policy is inspired by Denmark’s recent approach, which officials say has driven asylum applications to their lowest level in four decades and produced high removal rates. Denmark’s tougher stance has drawn criticism from human rights groups and others who argue it discourages people genuinely seeking protection.

The government says the package aims to reduce incentives for dangerous crossings while offering safe, legal routes for people in need of asylum. Lawmakers and advocacy groups will closely scrutinize the details when they are published in Parliament.