On 24 July 2024, the Home Office published regulations to amend provisions of the ‘Illegal’ Migration Act (IMA), which will allow asylum claims to be processed. These regulations will also enable people to be granted settlement and British citizenship. 

Regulations are a form of secondary legislation. Acts are a form of primary legislation, which outline general law. Secondary legislation outlines how that law is meant to be enforced in practice; like instructions.

We welcome these amendments as they will hopefully result in a more efficient decision-making process for asylum claims, and will pull many people – who arrived in the UK from March 2023 onwards, and people who claimed asylum from mid-July 2023 onwards – out of immigration limbo. 

However, though the regulations outlined below provide relief, they fall short of repealing (this means abolishing) the IMA in its entirety. The IMA is a hugely damaging piece of legislation which was introduced by the previous Conservative government to effectively end the asylum process. It was published in violation of the UK’s human rights obligations, grants high levels of power to the Home Secretary, and has caused so much fear and uncertainty in migrant communities for over a year. 

An overview of the regulations 

The new Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, published three regulations in total under The Illegal Migration Act 2023 (Amendment) Regulations 2024.

For a full overview of the changes and what they mean, see here. 

Generally, the regulations make the following changes:

Regulation 1

This simply outlines procedural points (like where the regulations apply, and what they are called). 

Regulation 2

Asylum claims made from 20 July 2023 onwards will now be processed as normal.

Section 2 of the IMA is the part upon which everything else depends. It creates a duty on the Home Secretary to arrange to remove anyone who meets the 4 removal conditions from the UK. One of those removal conditions was that the person had to have arrived in the UK on or after 20 July 2023. Section 2 of the IMA was never brought into force, however, its impact was tangible: it stopped the processing of asylum claims made on or after 20 July 2023. Even though they were not subject to Section 2 removal, many people’s asylum claims could not progress. 

Regulation 2 has now amended Section 2 duty to make arrangements for removal to apply to claims made after the section comes into force, whenever that eventually occurs. It has removed the reference to 20 July 2023, meaning that claims which were made from July of last year can now be processed as normal. 

Regulation 3

Parts of the IMA related to the Section 2 duty of removal have been omitted, and the ban on eligibility for immigration status or British citizenship has been lifted for people who entered the UK irregularly on or after 7 March 2023. 

Regulation 3 amends all the other sections of the IMA which stemmed from the Section 2 duty of removal to also come into force on “the day on which this section came into force in relation to the person”. 

Regulation 3 amends Sections 30-31 to apply to claims made after these sections come into force, whenever that eventually occurs. Section 30 of the IMA originally barred anyone who fulfilled the four requirements of (the unenforced) Section 2 from ever securing leave to remain in the UK. This amendment means that people who claimed asylum on or after 20 July 2023 will be able to have their asylum claims processed. 

Section 31 of the IMA originally barred anyone who entered the UK ‘unlawfully’ – on or after 7 March 2023 – from obtaining British citizenship, British overseas territories citizenship, British overseas citizenship and British subject status. This ban has now been lifted as a result of Regulation 3. 

So, the regulations allow the asylum system to return back to ‘normal’: people who claimed asylum last year will have their claims considered, and will be able to obtain refugee status, and later citizenship if their claims are accepted. 

The IMA caused unnecessary delay and fear in our communities, and prevented thousands of people from regularising their status in the UK – perpetuating the very situation the previous government was so staunchly against. We know that some people will have been forced to go underground as a result of this law. 

We repeat that though this is a welcome change, the IMA is a dangerous piece of legislation (even if it is now dormant), and should be repealed in its entirety. 

As always, 

No one is illegal. 

These walls must fall. 

Migration is life.