Home secretary says asylum reforms will ‘unite a divided country’ as full plans published

Government sees some visa bans as gamble worth takingpublished at 15:54 GMT

15:54 GMT

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent

The government’s plan to stop granting visas to countries that refuse to take people back has not come out of thin air.

The Conservatives created this power in their controversial 2022 immigration reforms – and then inexplicably never used it despite knowing they had a huge battle over returning some migrants to some countries.

Under the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 a country can be designated as “unco-operative” where it won’t provide the UK with permission – and travel documents – to send someone back to where they came from.

Without that permission to land the passenger, and a travel document, the UK can’t send them home.

The 2022 power allows the home secretary to hit back by assessing whether a country is dragging its heels and, at its highest, block visa applications – including the free movement of diplomats.

This sounds technical but it would be a completely annoying pain in the backside for an affected nation that would cause embarrassment.

Diplomatically, an affected nation could retaliate – but the government has clearly calculated that it is a gamble worth taking.