TOI correspondent from London: In a bid to dissuade asylum-seekers from arriving in Britain on the backs of lorries or via small boats, the UK home office has announced three new “safe and legal” sponsorship routes for refugees in India and six other countries to come to the UK and claim asylum.The new routes are initially targeted at refugees who have sought protection in India, Bangladesh, Egypt, Kenya, Malaysia, Pakistan and Uganda.To be eligible, the refugees will need to be outside their country of nationality, to have been verified by the UNHCR as meeting the definition of refugee and to have registered with the UNHCR or relevant authorities in one of these seven countries before Oct 1. So, in India’s case, it could be Tibetans, Sri Lankan Tamils, Afghans, Rohingya and others from Myanmar, who could be eligible for these routes, but not Indian nationals residing in India, nor internally displaced people.The refugee sponsorship routes, modelled on a similar programme in Canada, allow sponsors in the UK to identify refugees they wish to sponsor. The new routes are named community sponsorship, which enables UK charities to identify refugees they wish to sponsor; refugee work, which enables UK employers to sponsor and provide refugees jobs; and refugee study, which enables UK universities to sponsor refugees to study in the UK.
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Once resettled, the refugees will have an immediate right to work, study and to access welfare benefits in Britain and be placed on a five-year path to permanent resettlement.Sponsors will have to finance and provide their accommodation, the aim being to reduce the amount UK’s govt spends on asylum hotels.Applications to be sponsors for the community and study route have opened and the first arrivals are expected in autumn 2027. Applications under the work route will open in spring 2027.Both Reform UK and the Conservatives vowed to shut the scheme if they come to power. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said until illegal migration is stopped, “we should not be creating new routes into the UK for asylum claimants”.