Lib Dem Plan for Immigration and Asylum

The UK's immigration system is broken, and it is hurting everyone.

Employers can't recruit the workers they need, leaving the NHS short of nurses and social care in crisis. People without documents are denied access to healthcare and housing. Far too many people are detained indefinitely, in inhumane conditions and at great expense. Families are separated by unfair, complex visa requirements. Public confidence in the system has been shattered.

Decades of hostile policies and rhetoric from Labour and Conservative governments have created a system that no one trusts, and that fails to respect people's dignity.

The Home Office is not fit for purpose. The Conservatives' Hostile Environment turns teachers, doctors, police officers and bank ­clerks into border guards, and led members of the Windrush Generation to be deprived their rights, detained and even deported.

Both Labour and the Conservatives want to make all this much worse by taking us out of the EU and ending free movement.

Liberal Democrats will build a brighter future, with a fair, effective immigration system that treats everyone with dignity and respect. We will scrap the Conservatives' Hostile Environment, replacing their fishing-net approach with targeted, intelligence-led immigration enforcement. We will take immigration powers away from the Home Office so that visa and asylum decisions are made quickly and fairly. We will restore dignity and common sense by ending indefinite detention and allowing asylum seekers to work while their cases are decided. And we will stop Brexit and save free movement.

With a Liberal Democrat government, every person will have their dignity respected and UK employers will be able to recruit the workers they need. Those who choose to come to the UK to work, study or join their families will be welcomed for the skills and contributions that they bring. Family unity will be protected; the rule of law will be respected; and we will ensure fairness for taxpayers. Everyone will be able to have confidence that the immigration system is functioning as it should.

Christine Jardine
Liberal Democrats Shadow Home Secretary

Read the full plan here: https://www.libdems.org.uk/plan-immigration?fbclid=IwAR28IGMeytHeJW1hIGb32P0f4ng9_6WqScxU-bIUR8J5zI7GV-GzeETckoY