Following the policy announcement from Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on reforms to the asylum system in the UK, FLEX CEO Lucila Granada made the following statement:

“The proposed changes to refugee protection in the UK are performatively cruel, and will drive labour exploitation.

“The proposals include revoking the statutory duty to provide support to people seeking asylum, and reducing how long asylum seekers can stay in the UK. As FLEX research has pointed out, many asylum seekers are already forced into destitution by being blocked from most routes to work.

“Faced with the choice of exploitation or destitution, these changes will only further push people seeking safety into the arms of exploiters. The increasingly temporary status will lead to even more wariness of challenging poor working conditions, especially when they have little time left on their grant of leave.

“If enacted, these proposals will further entrench a two-tier workforce, pushing people who have been forced to flee for safety out of the reach of labour market enforcement and undermining the commitments that the government has made on decent employment standards.”

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