Refugees 'living in anxiety' amid asylum reform plans

"My kids always ask me, 'Will we be deported? Will we be able to stay here?' The hardest part is that I don't have answers to their questions," says Fateh Shaban.

He is a Syrian refugee in Canterbury, and fears the government's asylum reforms will "destroy everything" he has built since moving to the UK with his family in November 2022 after securing work as a university research fellow.

Following Labour's announced plans to make refugee status temporary and subject to review every 30 months, refugees in the South East say they are "living in anxiety".

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The Home Secretary has been clear that settlement is not a right, but a privilege that must be earned, prioritising contribution and integration."

Dr Shaban, an exiled Syrian academic who was classed as a criminal by the Assad regime, said the Canterbury community had been "very welcoming", but Labour's proposals mean uncertainty "affects everything in our life".

Above all, he worries for his four children. His eldest child is studying for her GCSEs, while his 10-year-old daughter – who Dr Shaban calls the family's "dictionary" – hopes to get into a grammar school.

"If we leave the UK now, I think the future of my kids will be destroyed," he said.

December marks a year since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, but Dr Shaban said Syria wasn't "a safe place yet".

Deadly clashes continue to erupt regularly, while many of the country's hospitals, schools and homes lie in ruin after 13 years of war.

Dr Shaban was wanted by security agencies and had his family properties confiscated by the courts after he was classed as a criminal for refusing to return to Syria to work under the Assad regime.

He hoped the fall of Assad would restore his rights, but claims the new government has not yet confirmed this.

Dr Shaban lost two of his brothers during the war in Syria, and longs to visit their graves having missed their funerals.

"I hope I can one day go back to Syria to rebuild my country. But there are still many challenges," he said.

The reforms would not apply to the Ukraine scheme, but Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood reiterated that this too was temporary, leaving Ukrainians struggling to plan their futures.

Kateryna Levanets, a Ukrainian refugee living in Folkestone, describes having "two lives – before and after the war".

On 24 February 2022, like millions of mothers across Ukraine, Ms Levanets rushed to wake her son.

"I said the most difficult words in my life: 'son, wake up. The war has started in Ukraine'," she said.

Since that day, she and her son have sheltered underground in her small southern hometown of Bashtanka while gunfire rained overhead, fled west to Lviv and further west to Poland, before arriving in the UK.

Today, the dance teacher has been able to return to her "passion", assisting at a local dance school, and found love in the UK, where her mum now also lives after arriving on the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

After Mahmood confirmed Ukrainians could also face return once the war with Russia ends, Ms Levanets says this would involve starting from scratch again.

"That's what I started to do here. I started to build my life from zero, step by step," she said.

She feels she is "in the middle of nowhere". When her dad, who remains in Ukraine, was diagnosed with stomach cancer six months ago, she felt further than ever from home.

"If I was without my son, definitely I would go back," she says. But she acknowledges that the decision may be made for her.

Vlada Bondar is a Ukrainian refugee and mental health consultant living in Brighton.

She understands the dilemma the UK faces on immigration, but said refugees' ability to plan was "being taken away" by making their status temporary.

Ms Bondar thinks that more Ukrainians may consider returning following the home secretary's reminder that their status is temporary, despite there being "no safe places in Ukraine".

She adds that a return home risks "potential death" but the mental health impact of an uncertain future in the UK was also "a small death".

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The Home Secretary set out major reform to fix the broken immigration system, restoring order and control."

They added that the Ukraine scheme was a bespoke scheme with its own rules.

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