Nathan Phillips argues that having a humane approach to refugees benefits everyone.
As the new UK Prime Minister settles into Downing Street, many charities, councils and support workers in Wales are asking the same question: will Andy Burnham double-down on the hard-line approach to refugees that has failed successive governments, and arguably given rise to far-right violence and breakdowns in community cohesion? Or will he tread a new path and deliver a more compassionate system that benefits everyone and encourages the Welsh Government to stand firm in its ‘Nation of Sanctuary’ commitment?
What everyone can agree on, in regards to the UK asylum system, is that it isn’t working. Despite there being six new pieces of anti-refugee legislation in as many years, each one has predictably focused on the same old idea: ‘what if we made life worse for people seeking sanctuary?’. Now, Burnham has the opportunity to try something genuinely new. He just needs the courage to take it.
The Welsh Government has no control over the fact that a (comparatively tiny) fraction of people seeking safety in Britain are ‘dispersed’ into Wales after fleeing war and persecution (often tied to UK military or colonial activity).
Starmer was elected in 2024 with a mandate for change. But when it came to asylum, he offered more of the same hostility, repackaged in new gimmicks. From planning new ‘prison-like’ camps with a track record of expensive failure and mental health crises, to suspending safe routes like family reunion, forcing more women and children into dangerous journeys. From escalating state-sponsored violence at the UK-France border that is causing more deaths in the Channel, to potentially wasting over £1.27bn on abolishing the permanent refugee protection that is a cornerstone of the Refugee Convention, leaving people with only 30-months of security at a time before they must repeatedly re-prove the peril that forced them from their homes. And now, the latest anti-refugee bill seeks to do away with qualified judges to hear appeals and create ever more barriers to settlement and integration, including a proposed £10,000 refugee tax, after already implementing a citizenship ban for refugees. These costly policies have benefitted nobody, emboldened far-right agitators and undermined Cymru’s well-intentioned ‘Nation of Sanctuary’ vision.
Immigration policies are of course a reserved power held in Westminster. The Welsh Government has no control over the fact that a (comparatively tiny) fraction of people seeking safety in Britain are ‘dispersed’ into Wales after fleeing war and persecution (often tied to UK military or colonial activity). What the Welsh Government can influence is how sanctuary seekers placed in Wales by the Home Office on a no-choice basis are treated when they get here. That is what the thinking behind the Nation of Sanctuary plan was always about: some refugees are placed in Wales – do we want to help them integrate into our local communities, or leave them to languish on the fringes of society?
Gofod i drafod, dadlau, ac ymchwilio.
Cefnogwch brif felin drafod annibynnol Cymru.
There was originally genuine, cross-party consensus for the Nation of Sanctuary plan, with Welsh Labour, Plaid Cymru, the Welsh Conservatives and the Welsh Liberal Democrats all favouring the approach of supporting the integration of sanctuary seekers. That is, until the recent Senedd elections, when some political parties bet on there being votes to be found in consciously misrepresenting the sanctuary vision and wilfully misunderstanding the difference between devolved and reserved powers, to the detriment of people seeking safety.
The evidence says that allowing sanctuary seekers to work could save the Treasury £6.7bn and give the economy a boost of £1.6bn.
Sadly, some have carried this abject electioneering into the new Senedd term, with a motion at odds with the notion of supporting refugees debated within weeks of members taking their places in Cardiff Bay. This is despite the fact that the Nation of Sanctuary plan accounts for merely 0.05% of the Welsh Government budget, and the vast majority of that spent on settling Ukrainian refugees.
Others are pushing for a different course. One rooted in our proud history of providing sanctuary to those in need here in Wales – from valley communities like Brechfa harbouring children fleeing the Spanish Civil War, to cities like Swansea welcoming those escaping the brutal dictatorship of Pinochet. On the first day of Burnham’s premiership, over 200 charities and hundreds more individuals on the frontline of migration policy sent the Prime Minister a ‘blueprint’ for how to fix the broken asylum system. It set out policies like extending the move-on period for newly-recognised refugees that, at present, drives up homelessness, and tackling the legal aid crisis that means sanctuary seekers and many others in Wales are left without representation. Many in Wales, including the Welsh Refugee Council, Cymru Global and Oasis Cardiff were among the signatories to the thirteen-point plan which sets out to support people seeking safety, rather than punish them. Crucially, that approach would save taxpayers’ money, make the system more efficient, tackle the business model of traffickers and smugglers behind small boat crossings, improve integration outcomes and community cohesion, and even deliver vital economic growth here in Wales and across Britain.
Burnham can choose a different path, one that doesn’t waste millions of pounds on policies that have only fanned the flames of division.
Take the no-brainer policy of lifting the ban on work for people seeking asylum, for example. Currently, people waiting often years for a decision on their asylum claim are trapped on a poverty packet of £7 a day (or £1.42 for those in hotels) and banned from working and supporting themselves. They are only allowed to apply for permission to work after waiting more than 12 months for a status decision. If granted, that permission only applies to an extremely limited and highly specialised list of roles such as ‘geophysicist’ or ‘acoustic engineer’. This means that people with valuable skills – who could be helping our crumbling health and care sectors, filling vacancies in the hospitality sector, or starting businesses and creating jobs – are effectively locked out of employment indefinitely. Plaid Cymru are calling for Wales to have powers to decide on its own occupation list, but they should be pushing the Home Office to lift the work ban altogether.
Successive UK Governments have chosen a ‘deterrence’ approach over the evidence the refugee sector has been presenting for years, and that has been collated in the new blueprint to Andy Burnham. Evidence that says allowing sanctuary seekers to work could save the Treasury £6.7bn and give the economy a boost of £1.6bn. Evidence that says it’s five times cheaper to house people in dignified, community-based accommodation than housing them in harmful and remote ex-military camps. Evidence that says establishing safe routes is the only sure-fire way of bringing down the number of small boat crossings, whilst also saving lives. Burnham can choose a different path, one that doesn’t waste millions of pounds on policies that have only fanned the flames of division (in some cases, literally).
Politicians on both sides of the border must engage with the evidence around asylum policy, which proves a humane approach to refugees benefits everyone.
As for our new-look Senedd, the debate should look at how to strengthen the Nation of Sanctuary plan, and be more ambitious in supporting people already here to settle.. The Welsh Government should be looking at options like an expanded English/Welsh language support offer for new arrivals, free bus travel for people seeking asylum, and greater employment support for newly-recognised refugees, all of which would be ‘invest-to-save’ measures in terms of their impact on integration, mental health and productivity. Politicians on both sides of the border must engage with the evidence around asylum policy, which proves a humane approach to refugees benefits everyone.
Syniadau uchelgeisiol, awdurdodol a mentrus.
Ymunwch â ni i gyfrannu at wneud Cymru gwell.
From rolling back on ‘earned settlement’ proposals, to accommodating people in communities not camps, to replacing immigration detention with more humane and cost-effective alternatives – the proposed blueprint offers the new Prime Minister straightforward, sensible policies. All that’s required to enact them is courage. Courage to admit that what we’ve been doing hasn’t been working. To change the narrative, to stop throwing people who’ve escaped war and persecution under the bus in the hope that, despite all evidence to the contrary, it might finally deliver a tiny boost in the polls. Our political leaders in Wales require the same courage. Courage to stand up for what is right. To remind us of our proud history of Croeso in Cymru. To combat misinformation. To defend the Nation of Sanctuary vision and to genuinely deliver on it.
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