A Home Office minister suggests using asylum seekers’ assets to cover costs could discourage them from entering the UK.
A British Home Office minister has indicated that asylum seekers arriving in the UK might have their valuables taken to help defray the cost of providing them with benefits. Keir Starmer’s government is reportedly planning a significant overhaul of its immigration policies with the aim of reducing the number of refugees entering the country.
According to Minister of State for Border Security and Asylum at the Home Office, Alex Norris, high-value items like vehicles could be confiscated. He made these remarks to the British media on Monday, ahead of a formal statement to Parliament by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
“It is only right that if people have money in the bank, or assets like cars and e-bikes, they should contribute… These are assets they should use to contribute to the cost of their benefits.” The Sun newspaper previously reported that items like jewelry and watches could be seized and sold to offset the costs of housing asylum seekers.
Norris clarified that authorities would not be “taking people’s heirlooms off them at the border,” stating that items of sentimental value would be excluded. He added, “If someone arrives with a bag full of gold rings, that’s different from an heirloom,” while urging the public to await Mahmood’s full statement for further details.
British media outlets have drawn comparisons between the proposal and Denmark’s stringent asylum policies, which allow authorities to seize assets above a certain value to finance support services and deter new arrivals. Switzerland has similar regulations, permitting the confiscation of cash or valuables exceeding approximately €900 to contribute to the upkeep of asylum seekers.
Mahmood’s broader immigration reform aims to expedite asylum claim processing, increase detention capacity, and decrease government spending on individuals entering the country irregularly. The UK has been grappling with a migration crisis for several years, with government statistics revealing that approximately 111,000 asylum applications were submitted in the first six months of this year. A Home Office report indicated that the number of applicants has almost doubled since 2021.
Meanwhile, support for the anti-immigration and EU-skeptic Reform party, led by MP Nigel Farage, has reportedly surged to 35%, surpassing Labour and the Conservatives, who garnered 20% and 17% respectively, according to a recent opinion poll.
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