People recognised as asylum seekers in the United Kingdom would have to pay about £10,000 — roughly Tk 16.3 lakh — as part of the cost of the state-funded housing and food they receive, and would be unable to apply for permanent residence unless they pay it. A related proposal was due to be presented in the British Parliament on Tuesday.
The new income-based repayment system has been written into immigration and asylum legislation. Government officials have compared it to the student loan system, but various human rights and refugee-support organisations have sharply criticised it, saying it amounts in effect to an extra tax on refugees fleeing war, persecution and famine.
According to migration experts, the government’s revenue from the scheme would be very limited, because even five years after being granted asylum, fewer than 15 percent of refugees earn more than £20,000 a year (about Tk 32 lakh).
UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmud unveiled the plan. The government spends £4 billion a year on housing and supporting asylum seekers, and Labour is under intense pressure to bring that cost down.
“Asylum support is a right, but it is also a responsibility,” the home secretary said. “When people are able to contribute and to repay the generosity of the British people, we expect them to do so.”
The Home Office said asylum seekers were expected to repay about £10,000 in total, though the home secretary could adjust the charge. A successful asylum seeker with sufficient funds would be asked to pay a set rate. “Migrants must pay the full amount before becoming eligible for permanent settlement,” the Home Office said.
Imran Hussain, director of external affairs at the Refugee Council, said: “Imposing an extra tax on refugees fleeing persecution, torture and war is unjust and unrealistic. It will make their struggle to rebuild their families and stand on their own feet even harder. Many asylum seekers need this support, because the Home Office itself bars them from working while their applications are assessed. This new financial burden will only harm those who have arrived on our shores with nothing.”
Jo Dexter, housing and welfare manager at the Helen Bamber Foundation, said: “This proposal is simply visible cruelty by the government. The announcement contains no concrete detail or credible plan to tackle the long-term delays in the asylum system.”
How cost-effective the scheme proves will depend on where the income threshold is set and how many people it covers. According to 2023 data, only 13 percent of those who had been granted refugee status five years earlier earned at least £20,000; the rest were either unemployed or earned less. The UK’s national living wage is a little under £25,000.
Madeleine Sumption, director of the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, said: “The data suggests that unless the income threshold is set well below the minimum wage, very few people granted asylum will earn enough to contribute to the scheme. Overall, the impact on public funding will be relatively small, because it is a means-tested payment for a very low-income population.”
She added that the scheme could discourage successful asylum seekers from looking for work, or push them toward alternative housing; thinking they would have to pay more tax after gaining refugee status, some might stop working altogether.
The Guardian asked the Home Office for full details of the scheme’s cost and the estimated income threshold at which asylum seekers would begin repaying. By comparison, the student loan scheme has a main operating budget of £44 million a year and an income threshold of £26,900 a year.
A Home Office spokesperson said details such as the income threshold would be set out in later regulations, and that until they were finalised the department could not determine the scheme’s exact cost.
The UK’s new immigration and asylum bill is expected to set out how Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights will be applied to immigration and deportation, and includes plans to strengthen the age-assessment process. Whitehall sources said the modern slavery framework would also be amended to stop late applications.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report