- Community groups gain powers to sponsor refugees.
- Trusted college teams to join expanded sponsorship plan.
- The sponsorship scheme would be “limited”: Ministry of the Interior.
The UK Home Office has announced it will create new legal pathways for asylum seekers, including allowing community organizations to sponsor refugees based on a similar system in Canada.
The system will go live later this year, Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood said on Friday night, with organizations and some “trusted” universities expected to be able to sponsor refugees and first arrivals in autumn 2027.
A route for employers to sponsor refugees is also expected to open next year, the Home Office said in a news release.
Immigration and asylum are thorny issues in the United Kingdom, where the far-right Reform UK party has rapidly gained popularity, riding a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment.
Keir Starmer, who resigned as prime minister this week but will remain in power until his successor is chosen, has tried to appear tough on immigration since coming to power two years ago.
His government will introduce legislation in parliament next week that will tighten asylum rules, including easing the deportation of rejected asylum seekers and restricting family reunification of refugees to their immediate family members.
The immigration policies of his likely successor Andy Burnham, who could replace Starmer as early as July, remain unclear, although he has acknowledged immigration concerns in his recent campaign to become an MP.
It is also uncertain whether Mahmood, the outspoken face of Starmer’s immigration crackdown, will remain in his position under the next prime minister.
“I will open new legal routes for genuine refugees, while closing loopholes that have been too often abused,” Mahmood said in a statement.
The new sponsorship scheme will “operate at a much higher capacity” than the UK Resettlement Scheme, which attracted around 800 people in the year ending September 2025.
The Home Office did not detail how many refugees could benefit from the scheme, but said it would have a “limit”.
Previous sponsorship schemes have targeted countries including resettling refugees from Syria or Afghanistan.
Earlier this year, Mahmood faced criticism from charities and within his own party over strict regulations, which included making refugee status temporary and banning educational visas for some countries, including Afghanistan, Myanmar and Sudan.
