Our response to the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood’s, speech today, 5 March 2026.

Today’s speech by the Home Secretary marks the end of a week in which we have been drip-fed a series of hostile and harmful asylum policies.

Each announcement takes us further away from a system rooted in fairness, humanity, and the protection of people fleeing persecution and danger. Instead, these measures deepen insecurity and compound suffering for those who come to the UK seeking safety.

Over recent days, the Government has proposed to:

Reduce refugee status to a temporary status of just 30-months; 

Remove financial and housing support from individuals;

Offer families up to £40,000 to ‘voluntarily’ leave the UK;

Reform appeals processes in order to increase deportations – including of families with children.

These policies will cause significant harm to people seeking asylum. For women – many of whom have survived sexual violence, trafficking, and other forms of gender-based violence – the impact will be especially severe.

Evidence from Denmark, where similar reforms have been implemented and many of these policies are borrowed from, shows the devastating consequences: women and their children pushed into poverty, insecurity and constant fear; family life destabilised; and access to settled status drastically reduced. Since the introduction of these policies in Denmark, grants of permanent protection for women have nearly halved. We cannot allow the UK to replicate this harm.

The Government knows the impact these measures will have. Yet it continues to sow division, scapegoat refugees and normalise language that dehumanises people who seek safety here. When we find ourselves debating what level of force is ‘acceptable’ to remove children, it becomes painfully clear just how far compassion and humanity has been stripped from the heart of Government policymaking.

Meanwhile, the Home Secretary offered a token gesture: capped ‘legal’ routes to work or study for people in need of protection. This announcement came just one day after announcing the suspension of student visas for people from Afghanistan (also skilled worker visas), Cameroon, Myanmar, and Sudan – rendering the latest proposal nonsensical. Without detail, timelines, or accessibility, these so-called ‘safe routes’ are little more than window dressing, designed to soften the blow of newly-announced punitive measures. People fleeing danger cannot wait years for safe pathways to protection.

All of this is happening while refugee family reunion routes remain closed, keeping families forcibly apart. As it stands, there are very few meaningful, safe and accessible routes for people to reach the UK to seek safety. Until the Government introduces these, lives will continue to be tragically lost.

Today at Women for Refugee Women, we feel anger and disappointment. We feel deep shame that this is the direction our Government continues to take. But we are not surprised. This hostility has been cultivated for years – and today it is in full bloom.

And still, we know that another way is possible.

We believe in an asylum system rooted in compassion, fairness and dignity. When people seeking safety here are given the chance to rebuild their lives, whole communities thrive.

The values of compassion and community – not fear and division – must guide the path forward.

Carenza Arnold, Head of Campaigns, says:

“These policies are a direct assault on the safety and dignity of women who have survived unimaginable persecution and violence. Every day, we hear from women who have fled rape, torture, and trafficking, only to be met with disbelief, hostility, and now an even harsher system that is designed to wear them down. 

Instead of building a system that offers safety, the Government is choosing to push people into deeper insecurity, poverty, and fear. This is not what the UK stands for. A society that turns its back on women seeking protection – that pushes them into poverty, strips away security, and shuts the door to safety – is a society losing its moral compass. 

We urgently need an approach grounded in humanity and evidence – not punitive, dog-whistle policies that punish the very people most in need of protection. Women for Refugee Women refuses to accept policies that deepen harm. And we refuse to give up on the fight for a compassionate and fair asylum system – because every woman deserves the chance to rebuild her life, in safety.”