LONDON: The UK interior ministry has announced it will create new legal routes for asylum seekers, including allowing community organisations to sponsor refugees based on a similar system in Canada.

The system will come into place later this year, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said, with organisations and some “trusted” universities able to sponsor refugees and first arrivals expected in autumn 2027.

A route for employers to sponsor refugees is also expected to open next year, the Home Office said in a press release. Immigration and asylum are contentious in the UK, boosting the hard-right Reform UK party amid rising anti-immigrant sentiment.

Keir Starmer has tried to appear tough on immigration since coming into power two years ago. His government will next week introduce legislation in parliament tightening asylum rules, including making it easier to deport failed asylum seekers and restricting family reunion for refugees to immediate family members.

Andy Burnham, possibly succeeding Starmer by July, has unclear immigration policies but has noted migration concerns in his MP campaign.

It is also uncertain whether Mahmood, the straight-talking face of Starmer’s immigration crackdown, will remain in her post under the next prime minister.

“I will open new legal routes for genuine refugees, while closing loopholes that have been too often abused,” Mahmood said in a statement.

The new sponsorship scheme will “operate at a much higher capacity” than the UK Resettlement Scheme, which brought around 800 people in the year ending September 2025. The Home Office did not detail how many refugees could benefit from the scheme, but said it would be “capped”.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2026