Building a Fair Asylum System
The UK asylum system is in crisis - and people fleeing war and persecution are paying the price.
For years, the Conservatives trashed the system, letting backlogs spiral out of control and leaving thousands of vulnerable people stuck in expensive hotels. Now, rather than fixing the mess, Labour has doubled down with counterproductive measures like the immediate suspension of family reunion pathways and reducing the move-on period for new refugees.
This is dividing communities, costing billions, and undermining the UK’s proud history of offering sanctuary to those in need.
As liberals, we believe in compassion, fairness and efficiency. That means ending the chaos, restoring dignity, and building an asylum system that works for everyone.
Today, members passed a new Liberal Democrat policy to do this by:
- Ending the use of asylum hotels by clearing the backlog, speeding up application decisions, and allowing people with valid claims to work, integrate and contribute while swiftly returning those who do not have a right to remain.
- Lifting the ban on employment for asylum seekers who have waited more than three months for a decision.
- Restoring family reunion pathways so refugees can rebuild their lives with their loved ones.
- Tackling dangerous crossings at their source by stepping up cross-border cooperation and giving the UK a leadership role in Europol to take on the criminal gangs.
- Reaffirming the UK’s commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and rejecting any attempt to undermine the rights and protections it guarantees.
Protests over asylum hotels have already put police forces under ‘chronic pressure’. Refugees are left in limbo, unable to work and forced into poverty. Families are kept apart. And meanwhile, the toxic rhetoric of Reform and the Conservatives is dragging politics further away from compassion and common sense.
The UK has a proud tradition of standing up for those fleeing oppression - Liberal Democrats will make sure we live up to it.