Home secretary urged to explain statement that asylum admissions will start at ‘a few hundred’ people
Shabana Mahmood is facing demands for compassion and clarity after it emerged that only a “few hundred” asylum seekers would initially be permitted to come to the UK under three new schemes for refugees.
The home secretary had justified a series of hardline policies – such as the deportation of families and the confiscation of assets from claimants – by saying she would also open the “safe and legal” routes for “genuine” claimants.
But on Monday night, Mahmood said the new schemes would be “modest” at first, and she has so far declined to say when or how the numbers admitted to the UK would increase over time.
The demands come as Mahmood faces anger from more than two dozen Labour MPs over the government’s plans, which will result in families being forcibly removed from the UK if they refuse cash incentives to return to their own country.
