The case for a humanitarian safe pathways visa
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The UK has a mixed record when it comes to the provision of legal and safe pathways for refugees and at-risk groups to come to the UK In the last few years bespoke pathways for Hong Kongers, Ukrainians, and Afghans have been introduced. While at the same time there has been a reduction in alternative pathways for those who do not qualify for these schemes and there is now consideration of an annual cap on the number of individuals who can come to the UK under existing legal safe pathways.
In short, the lack of a way for many individuals to apply for a legal and safe pathway to the UK alongside other factors, including the UK no longer having a returns agreement with its European neighbours post-Brexit and the rise of instability in countries within reach of Europe,has increased the small boat crossings of refugees across the channel.
Research produced by the House of Commons Research Library has found that British governments of all political variations, from Margaret Thatcher’s onwards, have a track record of granting asylum to those fleeing military conflict ranging from the Vietnam War, the collapse of Yugoslavia and the Balkans conflict, unrest in Zimbabwe, the civil war in Syria, and human rights crackdowns in Iran.
This briefing paper recommends the Government introduce a pilot humanitarian safe pathways visa, which would be underpinned by four principles:
Contribution: Successful individuals will immediately be given the right to work within the UK, which means that they contribute to UK society and pay taxes early after their arrival. It also has the added benefit of new arrivals entering the work place sooner and increasing their opportunities to integrate through social contact.
Ministers could also link the visa to having no recourse to public funds. This would mean that individuals on the visa are unable to immediately claim access to welfare without proof of financial hardship. This is the current case for the BNO Visa scheme.
Compassion: Recognising that the British public has a significant well of compassion for those who have been forced to leave their homes and that coalitions stretching across the political divide in the past have united to support bespoke visa schemes.
The success of the Homes for Ukraine Scheme shows a strong public appetite for community sponsorship when it comes to humanitarian safe pathways, which gives local communities a voice when it comes to accepting refugees in their community and is less likely to create an immediate burden on local housing supply.
Control: The humanitarian pathways visa would be underpinned by an annual quota approved by the Home Secretary. This would help control the number of individuals who could come to the UK under the visa scheme and is in line with the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill which maintains the introduction of a cap on the number of entrants using safe and legal routes in consultation with local authorities.
Ministers could link the quota to housing supply in the UK, including net additional dwelling statistics and government house building targets.
Cohesion: The visa would be paired with integration support, including welcome centers, language provision, and some civil society grants to ensure community cohesion and integration for new arrivals.
As with the Homes for Ukraine Scheme integration support should be devolved to local authorities who have the best understanding of the capacity and the needs of local communities.
Ministers should consider adopting an American approach and allow employers to run English language classes that are practical for the jobs market, this could help share the costs of integration between employers and the taxpayer.
Welcome centres and community cohesion programmes which build out social infrastructure should be for the benefit of the whole community and aligned with the levelling up agenda. This would help with integration and increase community support.
A humanitarian pathways visa could:
Help break the business model of people smugglers by allowing individuals from countries that have a high number of nationals crossing the channel to apply for a humanitarian pathways visa in UK embassies and consulates in a third country and await their decision. The cost would be significantly lower than paying people smugglers.
Help with controlled migration. An annual quota and cap on visas (initially 10,000) under the scheme could help when it comes to migration numbers, a better analysis of demand, and importantly would ensure that individuals who apply are within the system and cannot go underground.
Allow flexibility both in terms of aspiration and need by having a regulated safe pathway, which would allow the Government to have flexibility over its geographic focus, aspiration, and also to assess numbers and needs properly.
Help understand demand and coordinate civil society integration support. A visa with consistent numbers would allow civil society organisations and local authorities to understand demand and provide adequate and consistent integration support. This could include requiring community sponsorship to shoulder some of the costs and to speed up integration.
Save on administrative costs. Having one humanitarian safe pathway visa could reduce current administrative costs for the Home Office and UK embassies to manage a variety of different schemes. The Home Office could build upon the BNO Visa and allow those individuals to apply using the “UK Immigration ID Check App” and also allow for more security checks to be undertaken on individual applications.
Allow for additional requirements regarding skills or language to bolster integration and economic benefit to the UK. Ministers could consider additional requirements regarding the visa, which could include particular skills (looking at shortages in key UK sectors) or preference for those who already have strong English language skills.
Complement other tools on migration policy including efforts to crackdown on people smugglers through Border Security Commander and in-country support through the ODA budget.
Potential criteria for the scheme
Recognising the vulnerability of those in need is maintained by the UNHCR route which the Government should recommit to, this scheme should be used as a targeted tool to address geography, thematic, and specific routes.
Qualification for the scheme would be limited to a geographical area (unstable countries in reach of Europe or countries in the Commonwealth) or a thematic context (those fleeing conflict or displaced by climate change). Ministers could use the scheme to focus on countries that have a high number of nationals crossing the channel on small-boats.
The Home Secretary under the visa scheme could be given the powers to designate an “exposed group” which would qualify for the scheme. This could include a specific group at risk of persecution in a country e.g. for religious belief, sexuality, pro-democracy or women’s rights activists or a specific community within a country e.g. a targeted region within a country that is facing specific instability because of war or a climate emergency.
The visa scheme could be awarded on a “first come, first serve” basis, with a channel designated for the UK Embassy in-country and parliamentarians also able to offer recommendations for individual applicant cases for the scheme.
Community sponsorship could be a requirement under the scheme. This would include a requirement that those who apply for a visa have a sponsor agreed in advance, which would help with integration, local community support for the scheme, housing capacity for new arrivals, and vetting of individuals who apply under the scheme.
The integration and community cohesion part of the scheme, including the use of welcome centres, english language support, and civil society work could be devolved to local authorities to ensure it is tied in with the levelling up agenda.
The US Humanitarian Parole Program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans, which offered a capped humanitarian visa for those in need from a geographic region who had a community sponsor, could serve as a useful model for the UK Government to emulate on a smaller scale.
The number of individuals who enter the UK under the humanitarian visa scheme should be clearly signposted in official migration statistics. Ministers may also want to consider counting individuals who enter the UK under temporary visas as a separate statistic altogether.
Cover Image Courtesy of Valentin Onu, Pexels.com
