How do you achieve safe passage? Aspen Institute

Both the government and the refugee advocacy sector are calling for more safe routes for people seeking asylum to enter the UK. But tens of thousands of refugees continue to arrive by unsafe means every year because they are unable to access safe passage. The current UK refugee and asylum system affords different rights and services to refugees’ and asylum seekers’ depending on how they arrive in the country. The Illegal Migration Bill currently being debated in Parliament aims to make it impossible to claim asylum in the UK if you enter the country via irregular means.

For the next conversation in our series ‘Voices from a broken system: Rethinking refugee integration in the UK’, we will focus on how to ensure safe passage for refugees from different countries looking to find sanctuary in the UK. How  can we create more safe routes that are fairer, based on refugees’ needs for protection, and improve long-term integration outcomes? And, how can we be confident those who come here are in need of protection?