Home secretary to tackle UK's 'excessive generosity' with sweeping immigration reforms

The home secretary is set to unveil sweeping reforms to tackle illegal immigration, as she considers potential changes to human rights law.

Shabana Mahmood will announce on Monday a series of measures to make it easier to remove and deport illegal migrants, and reduce the "pull factors" that make the UK attractive to asylum seekers.

The Home Office said they would be the "most sweeping reforms to tackle illegal migration in modern times".

She is said to believe that "excessive generosity and ease of remaining" in the UK, along with systemic barriers, has made deportations extremely difficult, The Times reported.

It is understood that many of the changes set to be proposed by the home secretary will be modelled on the Danish system, under which 95% of failed asylum seekers are deported.

Denmark has tighter rules on family reunions, and restricts some refugees to a temporary stay.

Read more: Could Danish model save Labour's bacon?

Ms Mahmood is also mulling reforms to the European Convention on Human Rights and human rights law to "end the abuse of the system that leads to unjustified claims to delay or stop deportations", a Home Office source said.

The overhaul of modern slavery laws will require migrants to make a claim that they have been a victim as soon as they arrive in the UK, rather than allowing them to raise it unexpectedly later on, which has resulted in delayed deportations, The Telegraph reported.

The number of offences qualifying foreign criminals for automatic removal is also set to be increased, the paper said.

And judges are expected to be required to prioritise public safety over claims from migrants that deporting them would breach their family rights or put them at risk of "inhuman" treatment if they were returned to their home country.

Deportations are up - but so are boat crossings

Ahead of next week's announcements, the Home Office released new figures showing 48,560 people have been removed from the UK since Labour came to power.

The figure, which includes failed asylum seekers, foreign criminals and others with no right to be in the UK, is a 23% increase compared to the 16 months before last year's election.

Read more politics news:
Under-fire Starmer aide won't quit
Plans to raise income tax in budget ditched

Ms Mahmood said: "We've ramped up enforcement, deported foreign criminals from our streets, and saved taxpayers millions.

However, small boat crossings continue to rise - 39,075 people have made the journey so far this year, according to Home Office figures.

That is an increase of 19% on the same point in 2024 and up 43% on 2023, but remains 5% lower than the equivalent point in 2022, which remains the peak year for crossings.

(c) Sky News 2025: Home secretary to tackle UK's 'excessive generosity' with sweeping immigration reforms