UK government defends plan to limit refugee status

BRITAIN'S interior minister at the weekend defended plans to drastically reduce protections for refugees and end automatic benefits for asylum seekers, insisting that irregular migration was “tearing our country apart”.

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BRITAIN'S Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood appearing on the BBC's 'Sunday Morning' political television show with journalist Laura Kuenssberg. AFP

The measures, modelled on Denmark' strict asylum system, aim to stop thousands of migrants from arriving in England from northern France on small boats - crossings that are fuelling support for the anti-immigrant Reform UK party.

But the proposals are widely seen as an attempt to counter a hard-right surge in popularity. They are likely to be opposed by left-wing lawmakers within Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s embattled Labour government and the Refugee Council charity has already branded them “harsh and unnecessary”.

The centre-right opposition Conservatives also criticised the measures, their home affairs spokesperson Chris Philp saying the government was just “tinkering with the edges”.