Asylum changes seek to use children as a weapon, says Labour peer

""Our hesitancy around returning families creates particularly perverse incentives. To some the personal benefit of placing a child on a dangerous small boat outweighs the considerable risks of doing so. Once in the UK, asylum seekers are able to exploit the fact that they have had children and put down roots in order to thwart removal, even if their claim has been legally refused.""

"The home secretary is seeking to use children as a weapon in her changes to the asylum system, a veteran Labour peer who came to Britain as a child refugee has warned. Alf Dubs, who arrived in the UK aged six in 1939 fleeing the persecution of Jews in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, described Shabana Mahmood's proposals as a shabby thing. Mahmood faced a backlash from Labour MPs and refugee charities on Monday as she set out plans for the biggest shake-up of asylum laws"

The Home Office will consult on measures to remove financial support for families with children under 18 if asylum claims are refused. The department argues that hesitancy around returning families creates perverse incentives that lead some to place a child on a dangerous small boat and then exploit parenthood to thwart removal. Proposals also include scrapping permanent refugee status and increasing the qualifying residence period for settlement from five to 20 years. Labour MPs and refugee charities mounted a backlash. A veteran Labour peer who arrived as a child refugee described the proposals as shabby, warned against using children as a weapon, and predicted greater local tensions.

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