Foreign sex offenders to lose refugee protections under new law

Foreign nationals convicted of sexual offences will no longer be eligible for refugee protection in the UK under new measures announced by the Home Office as part of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill.

The government says the change will bolster public safety by tightening asylum rules, excluding those convicted of crimes serious enough to place them on the sex offenders register.

At present, the Refugee Convention allows countries to refuse asylum to those convicted of terrorism, war crimes, or ‘particularly serious crimes’ carrying a sentence of 12 months or more. The new amendment will introduce a presumption that any conviction leading to sex offender registration disqualifies a person from refugee status.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said:

“We are restoring order to a broken asylum system that has been mired in delay and dysfunction for far too long, and we are strengthening our system to make sure that the rules are respected and enforced.
Sex offenders who pose a risk to the community should not be allowed to benefit from refugee protections in the UK. We are strengthening the law to ensure these appalling crimes are taken seriously.”

The law change is part of the wider ‘Plan for Change’, which also includes measures to cut the asylum backlog and save public money.

These measures include setting a 24-week target for the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal to determine appeals brought by asylum seekers receiving accommodation support or who are foreign offenders.

Appeals currently take an average of nearly 50 weeks to conclude.

In addition, the government plans to roll out artificial intelligence across asylum casework to speed up decisions, with AI tools helping summarise interview transcripts and retrieve country-specific information, aiming to save caseworkers up to an hour per case.

Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls Minister Jess Phillips said:

“We are determined to achieve our mission of halving violence against women and girls in a decade.
That’s exactly why we are taking action to ensure there are robust safeguards across the system, including by clamping down on foreign criminals who commit heinous crimes like sex offences.”

The new legislation will also toughen action against those posing as immigration lawyers. The Immigration Advice Authority will be given enhanced powers to fine unregulated advisers up to £15,000. Providing immigration advice without registration is already a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment.

Further reforms will require businesses hiring gig economy and zero-hours workers, such as food delivery drivers and construction workers, to conduct immigration checks, bringing them in line with other employers.

The government says it has already made progress, with over 24,000 people with no right to remain returned from the UK since the last election, and a 16% increase in the removal of foreign criminals.

The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill will also introduce powers for law enforcement to place electronic tags, curfews, and exclusion zones on foreign offenders awaiting removal.

The measures are to be tabled ahead of the report stage of the Bill in the House of Commons.