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Immigration and Asylum Bill 2026

The Immigration and Asylum Bill was introduced in the Commons on 30 June 2026. Second reading is scheduled for Monday 13 July.

Despite its title, the bill is as much about modern slavery as immigration and asylum. Nor would its impact be limited mainly to asylum seekers.

Legally qualified judges would no longer hear first-instance immigration appeals

Currently, appeals against Home Office immigration decisions are decided by judges in the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), which is part of the courts and tribunals service. There is a substantial backlog of appeals waiting to be heard and people are waiting over a year for an appeal hearing.

The bill would create a new organisation called the Independent Immigration Appeals Authority (IIAA) which would eventually replace the tribunal. Instead of judges, appeals would be decided by IIAA adjudicators. Adjudicators wouldn’t have to be legally qualified or have legal experience. The government says this would make it easier to recruit more decision-makers, helping to reduce delays and process appeals more quickly.

The bill would also allow for some cases to be prioritised by the IIAA for a decision, and introduce fast-track appeal processes for people facing removal who make a ‘late’ claim to be allowed to stay in the UK.

The government wants to make it harder for migrants to invoke human rights law

Migrants in the UK, and occasionally abroad, can sometimes secure visas to which they would not otherwise be entitled by invoking Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 8 protects family and private life. In practice, this means that some people with long-term residence or British partners/children can challenge removal for visa overstaying or deportation for criminal offending, depending on the exact circumstances.

The bill would amend existing legislation telling judges how Article 8 rights should be interpreted in appeals. It aims to tighten the rules so that fewer migrants secure residence rights in future: an accompanying impact assessment suggests that there could be 11,700 more Article 8 cases refused.

In particular, the bill would change a specific rule under which families are granted residence rights if they have a child with British citizenship or seven years’ residence and it would not be reasonable to expect the child to leave the UK. It would now be unreasonable to expect children to depart only if they would receive no education abroad, find it very difficult to integrate or there would be a “very significant and long-lasting adverse effect on the child”. Immigration lawyers have highlighted this as a potentially significant change.

A new legal status for successful refugees, and power to claw back support payments

At the moment, people who are granted asylum in the UK receive either refugee status or humanitarian protection.

The bill would replace refugee status and humanitarian protection with a single new category called ‘protection status’.

The rules for who qualifies for asylum would stay the same. The government says that having one type of protection status instead of two would make it easier and faster to process asylum applications and appeals.

The bill would also allow the Home Secretary to require some refugees to repay part of the cost of any accommodation and financial support received while waiting for a decision on their asylum claim, if they can afford to do so.

The bill doesn’t say how much people would have to pay. However, the Home Office has suggested that the amount could be around £10,000. People could repay the money in monthly instalments, either directly to the Home Office or through the benefits or tax system.

Changing the laws on preventing modern slavery and supporting victims

The bill would amend the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, which make up the UK’s domestic modern slavery legislation.

The measures are aimed at preventing misuse and delays, giving further powers to law enforcement, and increasing supply-chain transparency.

It would amend the civil prevention and risk order regime in the Modern Slavery Act, which helps to manage individuals who pose a risk of committing slavery and trafficking offences. Slavery and Trafficking Prevention Orders (STPOs) and Slavery and Trafficking Risk Orders (STROs) enable the courts to impose restrictions on people thought to pose this risk.

Among other things, the bill would create a new power to impose a STRO following an acquittal for a slavery or trafficking offence, expand the police forces that are able to apply for orders, and enable the use of electronic monitoring.

The National Referral Mechanism would be reformed so that a person’s credibility would be considered by the authorities when deciding whether they are a victim of modern slavery or trafficking. It would also provide a basis for disqualification from protection as a victim where someone is a threat to national security.

The bill would also reform the process for organisations that are required to make supply chain transparency statements under the Modern Slavery Act. This requirement would be extended to public sector organisations, and enforced with financial penalties for the first time.