Tougher immigration measures to stop Palestinians applying for asylum on Ukrainian visa scheme

The government look set to close a mechanism that allowed a Palestinian family to claim asylum in the UK via a scheme aimed at Ukrainians.

On Monday, the government unveiled its immigration white paper which Sir Keir Starmer said would help “take back control of our borders” in order to reduce net migration to the UK.

He told journalists: “Nations depend on rules – fair rules. Sometimes they’re written down, often they’re not, but either way, they give shape to our values. They guide us towards our rights, of course, but also our responsibilities, the obligations we owe to one another. Now, in a diverse nation like ours, and I celebrate that, these rules become even more important. Without them, we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.”

The white paper notes that there had been an increase in the number of cases of people allowed to stay in the UK on the basis of Article 8 of the Human Rights Act and ECHR, which expresses the right to a “respect for family and private life”.

In February this year, both Starmer and opposition leader Kemi Badenoch hit out at the decision by a judge to allow a Palestinian family to live in the UK despite the fact that they had applied through the Ukraine Family Scheme, set up by the government shortly after the Russian invasion, that allowed Ukrainian nationals to join family members or extend their stay in the UK.

Judge Hugo Norton-Taylor said that the family were in an “extreme and life threatening” situation and despite the fact that the family were refused by a lower-tier immigration tribunal, he overturned the decision citing the ECHR.

In the white paper, the government say they will bring in measures to “strengthen the public interest test to make it clear that Parliament needs to be able to control our country’s borders and take back control over who comes to, and stays in the UK, striking the right balance between individual family rights and the wider public interest”, as well as “clarify Article 8 rules and set out how they should apply in different immigration routes so that fewer cases are treated as ‘exceptional’,” and “set out when and how a person can genuinely make a claim on the basis of exceptional circumstances.”

Other measures announced by the government as part of wider measures to reduce net migration included increasing the Immigration Skills Charge paid by employers when employing overseas workers, raising English language requirements across every main immigration route, and the closure of the care-worker visa scheme.

Reacting to the government’s announcement, Badenoch accused Starmer of hypocrisy and shared a video from his leadership campaign where he said: “We need to make the wider case on immigration. We welcome migrants”, as well as other clips of the prime minister making a positive case for immigration.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was also critical of the measures announced: “This government will not do what it takes to control our borders. Only Reform UK will leave the ECHR and deport illegal migrants.”

Meanwhile, Green Party leadership suggested a comparison between Starmer’s speech this morning and Enoch Powell’s notorious Rivers of Blood speech in 1968.