Protest in Birmingham challenges Shabana Mahmood’s refugee overhaul

Local TV

Refugee workers and campaigners have gathered outside Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s Birmingham office to protest sweeping changes to the asylum system, including temporary refugee status and a 20-year wait for settlement. A migration case worker explains what the plan could mean for families, local services, and life in the city.

Transcript

00:00On Frederick Street, the banners talk about welcome, but the argument underneath is about limits.

00:06The government wants refugee status to be temporary and reviewed,

00:09with a far longer route to settlement for those who enter the country illegally,

00:14or often called by ministers, euphemistically, irregular routes.

00:18The claim is that a system under this much strain cannot keep offering quick, secure status to large numbers of new arrivals.

00:25Campaigners here see cruelty and deterrence dressed up as reform,

00:30for caseworkers, the question is whether these changes actually fix anything,

00:34or simply shift people from one kind of limbo into another.

00:38The reviews that they'll have to do, and the paperwork they'll have to file,

00:42and potentially the costs that they'll have to incur, will increase a huge amount, a very cruel amount, I would say.

00:48And that's going to make it hard for people to integrate.

00:51And to be honest, the most absurd thing, in my opinion, and the most inhumane thing,

00:55is that in that 20-year period, they're suggesting that anyone whose home country is deemed to have become safe in that period,

01:03now has to return, whether they've integrated or not.

01:07Asylum hotels and large sites have become flashpoints in towns and cities across the country.

01:12Local residents talk about pressure on housing, GP surgeries and schools,

01:16with little sight in how many people arrive in their area or for how long.

01:20Official figures show tens of thousands are still in hotels, despite repeated promises to close them.

01:27Campaigners here today argue the answer is faster decisions and more support.

01:31Many taxpayers ask why their neighbourhood ended up absorbing the overflow,

01:36and how long they are expected to fund it.

01:39Ordinary working class people in this country are feeling the pinch,

01:43and ordinary working class people all over the world are feeling the pinch,

01:46and we're fighting amongst each other, and I would say that's exactly what people that are billionaires

01:52and people who have access to investing anywhere in the world and outsourcing anywhere in the world,

01:57exactly what they want is for ordinary people to be fighting each other.

02:00Fairness sits at the heart of this row.

02:02British families wait years for social housing, while hotels take government contracts.

02:07Councils say they were lent on to accept large numbers with little consultation.

02:12At the same time, people fleeing war and persecution are left in a system that keeps them idle and dependent,

02:19sometimes for years.

02:21Protesters here fear that tougher rules will punish those people further and fuel hostility.

02:27Others argue that refusing to accept any hard limit on numbers or any consequence for illegal entry

02:32is exactly what feeds resentment and leaves a gap for more extreme voices to fill.

02:37Yeah, I mean, I don't want to deny that people are feeling pressure in a lot of areas around the country,

02:43but I would just encourage people to look into who's really responsible for that,

02:48whether it's the super-rich or whether it's the other working class people

02:54that are fleeing from persecution or war or coming here for a better life.

02:59Yeah.

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