Labour's new policies for asylum seekers

[frommyheadtomyfeet]

Are rumoured to follow Denmark's, which include the seizure of valuables from people arriving here to pay their accommodation costs.

Is anyone else disgusted by this?! How will it work, they can take people's jewellery, phones etc., and leave them with nothing? What sort of message does that send?

If labour doesn’t act then as the home secretary says what follows will be much worse.
Whilst it is the role of government to lead it must also work with the will of the people and the will of the huge numbers of people is to stop or at least severely limit immigration.
This issue is dividing the country and must be resolved or we will end up with a country none of us want to live in.

I’m sorry but targeting the most vulnerable people as opposed to the vile racists is what’s going to make it worse.

Imagine you’re fleeing a war torn country. You might pick to take things with you, like jewellery. I know if I were to flee, I’d take my nan’s necklace with me as it has a lot of sentimental value. If that got stolen from me by a government I’d be absolutely bereft. It’s reminiscent of Nazi policies.

I am a lifelong labour voter. I have great sympathy for those fleeing terror.
However, if we refuse to see the writing on the wall and call anybody who wants to limit immigration a racist then this will end with Nigel Farage in number 10.

What's your source for the UK government planning to take valuables from immigrants please?

It’s in the guardian.

So we steal from the vulnerable rather than deal with the racist rot?

This is exactly right - ignoring the feelings of swathes of the country abd condemning them as racist is part of the reason we ended up with sodding Brexit. We can't afford to repeat that - or we will end up with a reform government.

She is an idiot, Starmer is an idiot take what they say with a shovel full of salt.

none of them have the sense or the bottle to do what needs to be done, which is stop these boats coming across the channel

Could you post the link please? I read the Guardian articles about the proposals. It mentioned something about assets being taken into account but no more detail than that. Certainly nothing about taking people's jewellery etc.

Why is it racist to say our country is overpopulated to a disastrous degree and we cannot continue to take half a million people a year?

I’d rather call a spade a spade.

this.
I feel so sorry for those escaping war, but we have to be honest we can’t support the huge numbers arriving here. We are a small island compared to all the countries crossed to get here.

If you are genuinely fleeing danger, and need a safe place to live, you would not think twice about handing over your phone or watch in order to get that.

Can you explain why it’s racist?

Can you explain how you propose to deal with the “racist rot”, I am probably closer to your side of the political spectrum, but would be interested in your solution here?

Why shouldn’t people have to give up assets to fund their accommodation?

people who have lived and contributed in the UK their whole lives are forced to sell assets to fund their own care. How is this different? If you said jewellery was exempt people would convert their cash to bracelets

the point of the policy is to make the UK less attractive. What other countries have found is the only solution is to stop the demand from people who want to enter illegally.

if you’re desperate, genuinely fleeing for your life, then you’ll trade your jewellery for safety. If you’re shopping around for a place to be but still popping back to Afghanistan or wherever for holidays then this might make you reconsider.

I think it’s about time that something was done to make the UK a less desirable country to enter. If it works as a deterrent then great because the amount of people entering the country can’t go on, there has to be a limit at some point.

Same here. What you’re saying OP is that you think it’s fine to turn up here and claim from a state you haven’t paid anything towards while having a potentially unlimited value of assets on your person/in your bank account? It sounds like balancing the books rather than stealing to me. Sentimentality simply doesn’t come into it, otherwise everyone would be pleading every asset has sentimental value.

I absolutely detest racism in all forms, this is not racism.

Can you provide a link please? There's various articles about immigration on the Guardian website but I can't see anything about the UK government taking phones or jewellery.

Hilarious. Good luck with that. I'll bet there aren't going to be many carrying pockets full of valuables, bearing in mind most are economic migrants. And a few thousand pounds from the sale of a few valuables would probably cover their keep for a couple of weeks, at most.

This. Basically it’s ‘racist’ to not have an open border policy where we move heaven and earth to give anyone who turns up exactly what they want, it’s racist to expect anything from them in return and also racist to object if they go on to commit crimes having been given all of this. The actual citizens of this country who live here and pay tax (who are not at all necessarily white themselves) have to watch their quality of life sink and sink, and carry on working uncomplainingly, to fund the above.

Then we should have been more proactive about those who were not fleeing war torn countries before we got here.

Found it!

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/nov/17/refugees-jewellery-asylum-home-office

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/nov/17/refugees-jewellery-asylum-home-office

Similar policies were racist until two minutes ago. Starmer and co were sure on that.

The stuff the op mentions won’t change anything bar set the scene for tougher measures at the next GE.