News Update – 2 October 2026
From reopened refugee routes and a possible rethink of Earned Settlement to tougher enforcement and significant new compliance duties for employers and sponsors, this has been a consequential week in UK immigration. Our Immigration Weekly News Update covers what the changes mean in practice, alongside forthcoming Skilled Worker reforms, renewed Channel crossings, concerns over detention and asylum accommodation, and the end of the UK–France “one in, one out” pilot.
Asylum and Protection: UK Resettlement Scheme Reopens
The most significant protection announcement of the week came on 28th September as the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood confirmed that the UK Resettlement Scheme is open again for new referrals.
The scheme was never formally closed, but it stopped taking new referrals last December. Since then, it has been used only for a small number of legacy cases, around 300 in the first half of this year.
About one in four referrals is expected to be for Afghan women and girls and Palestinian refugees. Referrals will come through the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Refugee Assistance Project, with security and criminality checks before arrival. The first arrivals are expected before the end of the year.
Family units will be able to travel together. However, extended families will not be included, which reflects the Government’s wider restrictions on family reunion.
The announcement also set dates for the three sponsorship routes. From October 2026, charities and non-profit organisations can apply to become sponsors under the community sponsorship and student sponsorship routes. The first arrivals on both are expected in autumn 2027. Applications for the work sponsorship route, through which employers will host refugees, open in spring 2027.
Sponsors will be expected to provide accommodation, help with integration and support in finding work. Numbers will be modest, as the Home Office expects arrivals across all four routes to begin in the hundreds and rise to the low thousands as illegal migration falls, with a cap set each year.
The settlement terms are the most striking part of the package. Refugees arriving through these routes will be on a five-year path to settlement. Those who arrive irregularly face a status reviewed every 30 months for up to 20 years. The Government is open that this difference is intended to discourage irregular arrival.
This development has received a mixed reaction. The Refugee Council welcomed the move but said safe routes only work at scale, meaning thousands of places rather than hundreds.
Madeleine Sumption of the Migration Observatory said there is little reason to expect any real effect on unauthorised arrivals. She also noted that the most vulnerable refugees have historically fared worse in the labour market.
The Conservatives and Reform UK both criticised the plans, and Reform said it would revoke the status of anyone arriving through these routes.
The broader direction of the UK’s protection system is now clear: the way a person arrives increasingly shapes the future available to them. Resettled refugees will have a stable route to settlement, while those granted protection after crossing the Channel could face years of repeated status reviews.
Settlement and Indefinite Leave to Remain
The Home Secretary has signalled that she is prepared to rethink her “Earned Settlement” plans. She faced sustained pressure from Labour MPs, trade unions and a senior cabinet colleague.
Under the proposals, the standard qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain would double from five to ten years. Some people who came on health and care visas could face a wait of up to 15 years. The most contested element is that the changes would reach people already in the UK, reportedly including those who arrived from 2021 onwards.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner reopened the row on the eve of conference. She stood by her earlier description of the plans as “un-British” and argued that changing the rules midway breaks faith with people who planned their lives around them.
Unison’s general secretary, Andrea Egan, led a protest outside the conference. She said the plans would unfairly penalise overseas care workers who have come to the UK to care for British citizens.
Mahmood’s speech this week on 28th September did not abandon the policy, but its tone shifted. She accepted that some respondents to the consultation had called elements of the reforms unfair. She promised a final position that would be fair both to people who came lawfully and to British citizens.
Home Office sources stressed that no final decision has been taken, with the formal response expected in the autumn. Andy Burnham told LBC he backed both Mahmood and Rayner, and said the reforms needed to strike the right balance.
Reading between the lines, transitional protection for people already in the UK on a five-year route looks like the most likely area for compromise. The principle of a longer default qualifying period for new arrivals appears to remain intact. Clients approaching their five-year point should be well advised to keep evidence of continuous residence and lawful status in good order until the position is confirmed.
Immigration Detention: Tinsley House and Campsfield
HM Inspectorate of Prisons published its report on Tinsley House, the removal centre near Gatwick, on 28 September. The unannounced inspection took place between 15th June and 2nd July, when the centre held 136 men.
Inspectors found the centre broadly safe and decent, and most detainees spoke well of staff. However, the overall rating was “not sufficiently good”, driven mainly by concerns about healthcare, safeguarding and living conditions.
The findings link closely to this week’s other news. More than half of the detainees had arrived by small boat and were being held for removal to France under the now-ended pilot.
Inspectors found these cases were not progressed with enough urgency or care for safeguarding. Detainees could wait up to a week for a first legal advice surgery, and some attended several before a lawyer took on their case. Information about what removal to France would involve was limited.
The report gives a stark example of missed safeguarding. One detainee told staff he had been tortured in Libya and forced to work to pay for his crossing. That information was not passed on, and a modern slavery referral was made only after he found a lawyer three weeks later.
Age assessment was another serious concern. Over six months, 21 people brought from the Manston processing centre were later found to be children, and some spent around a month in detention before this was resolved.
Inspectors also criticised poorly governed healthcare, the absence of psychological therapy, poorly ventilated rooms and persistent drainage smells. Some vulnerable detainees had been released without anywhere to live.
The inspectorate pointedly asked why so many people were detained, at great public cost, when more than half were eventually released. Only one of eight concerns from the previous inspection had been fully dealt with, and inspectors expect to return within a year. The Home Office said it would consider the recommendations.
In Oxfordshire, the public inquiry into plans to expand Campsfield removal centre from 160 to 400 beds has been postponed. It had been due to open in Banbury on 6 October. The Planning Inspectorate said a revised timetable will follow.
The postponement came after campaigners asked the Home Office to publish more of the material supporting its application. They argue that heavy redaction makes proper scrutiny impossible. The application is going through the Crown Development route, which takes the decision away from the local council.
The Home Office maintains that more detention capacity is essential to increase removals. With the French returns route now closed, the questions raised at Tinsley House about the quality and fairness of detention will only become more pressing.
Asylum Accommodation
The Government’s commitment to close every asylum hotel continues to meet local resistance. Residents of Barnham in Suffolk visited Piddington in Oxfordshire to compare notes. Both communities are challenging plans to house up to around 1,250 men at each of two former Ministry of Defence sites, RAF Barnham and MoD Bicester.
The Home Office said it was listening to local concerns and repeated that it has saved £1 billion in accommodation costs since the election.
In Cambridgeshire, Fenland District Council lodged formal objections on 28th September to a proposed 26-bed property in Leverington for women and babies. The council said the plan breaks an earlier understanding that no asylum seekers would be placed in parts of the district.
Sites of this kind are central to the plan to move people out of hotels and into longer-term dispersal accommodation. These local disputes suggest the timetable for ending hotel use will remain under pressure.
Enforcement and the Common Travel Area
Immigration Enforcement made 50 arrests over three days of targeted action between 22nd and 24th September. The work was part of Operation Comby, a multi-agency effort against gangs moving people from the Republic of Ireland into the UK through the Common Travel Area.
Officers patrolled ports, roads and rail routes across all four nations. The operation has led to more than 250 arrests since July 2024, 113 removals and the seizure of almost half a million pounds in cash. It runs alongside Operation Gull, the routine programme of deployments at Northern Irish ports and airports, which made almost 1,000 arrests in the past year.
Two cases show the overlap between enforcement and exploitation. At Belfast International Airport, two Romanian women who had travelled from Ireland without permission were identified as possible victims of trafficking. One was detained for removal to Romania and the other returned voluntarily to Ireland. At Belfast Port, four Romanian nationals were arrested in a vehicle carrying around £130,000 of counterfeit Apple goods.
The Minister for Border Security and Asylum, Anna Turley, said the operation showed Immigration Enforcement working around the clock against criminal gangs. Across Northern Ireland, nearly 3,000 enforcement visits between July 2024 and June 2026 led to more than 2,400 arrests and nearly 1,000 returns, about half of them to Ireland.
The Home Secretary has also said she will double Immigration Enforcement’s budget by 2028/29 and grow its workforce by 60 per cent.
For advisers, the Belfast case raises a familiar concern: how the identification of possible trafficking victims fits with a fast removal process. The Tinsley House findings point to the same issue. Where there are indicators of exploitation, an early referral into the National Referral Mechanism should be considered before removal goes ahead.
Illegal Working and the Right to Work Extension
The most immediate change for employers took effect on Thursday 1st October. Section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 now extends right to work checks beyond traditional employees. The scheme now covers contractors, agency workers, individual subcontractors and people who find work through online platforms.
Liability can now travel up a contracting chain. A business that engages labour through subcontractors or platforms may be exposed if the person doing the work has no right to work.
A separate statutory excuse is available for these new arrangements, but it is demanding. Every prescribed requirement has to be satisfied before the work starts. Digital checks must be carried out through a provider certified under the Government’s digital identity framework.
The change comes as enforcement activity rises sharply. Immigration Enforcement made 7,270 visits across the UK in the first half of 2026, about 31 per cent more than a year earlier, leading to 4,756 arrests. Civil penalties can reach £60,000 for each illegal worker.
Two recent local cases show that the consequences go beyond fines. In Kent, a car wash, a pizza takeaway and an Indian restaurant in the Medway area were fined about £222,000 in total after raids found illegal workers.
In York, the Sky-Blue Chinese restaurant and karaoke bar lost its premises licence entirely. This followed immigration visits in July and December 2025 that found two employees without the right to work. The Home Office itself asked for the licence to be revoked, arguing that added conditions or a suspension would not be enough given the repeated breaches.
The practical message for businesses is to map everyone who works under their name, including those not on the payroll. They should also review supply and platform contracts for clear right to work obligations and audit rights. An illegal working penalty can also put a sponsor licence and, in licensed trades, a premises licence at risk.
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Sponsor Licence Suspension and Revocation
The Home Office suspended Buckinghamshire New University’s student sponsor licence with effect from 30th September. The university has been taken off the register of licensed student sponsors. It has 20 working days to respond, after which the licence will be revoked unless it can show why it should be reinstated.
Current international students can continue their studies for as long as their existing permission remains valid. The university had 1,530 international students in 2024/25, and its Worker and Temporary Worker licences are not affected. The Home Office has not publicly set out the reasons for the suspension.
The case is a reminder that the stricter compliance regime for student sponsors, which took effect on 1st June 2026, has real consequences. Institutions should be watching their refusal rates, enrolment and attendance records, and reporting duties closely.
Two developments earlier in September remain relevant to licence revocation.
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Skilled Worker Route: Reminder of upcoming changes
An important change from the September Statement of Changes (HC 584) takes effect on 8 October.
From that date, a Skilled Worker who receives a positive conclusive grounds decision confirming they are a victim of modern slavery can have their conditions varied. They will then be able to take any work, including self-employment and voluntary work, for the rest of their current permission. Work as a professional sportsperson or sports coach is excluded.
This is a welcome step for workers who were tied to an exploitative sponsor. Its real value will depend on how quickly conclusive grounds decisions are made and how the variation process works in practice.
Sponsors should also keep the end of the year in mind. The current Temporary Shortage List expires on 31st December 2026. The Migration Advisory Committee has recommended a shorter list of 28 occupations for 18 months from January 2027, and the Home Office has yet to announce its decision. Employers recruiting into medium-skilled roles should plan for the possibility that their occupation drops out.
Channel Crossings
The week opened quietly, with the Home Office recording no small boat arrivals on 25 or 26 September. That changed on Sunday 27 September, when 526 people arrived in seven boats.
This came just days after Wednesday 23 September, the busiest day of the year so far, when 781 people crossed in ten boats. It was the highest daily total since 803 people arrived on 20 December 2025.
Even so, the overall trend still favours the Government. By 27th September, 19,135 people had crossed in 2026, around 42 per cent fewer than at the same point last year. Ministers have also highlighted the summer months as the quietest for several years.
The figures also point to a shift in smugglers’ tactics. One dinghy carrying 51 people departed from Normandy, far west of the usual launch points, and remained at sea for more than 33 hours.
At around the same time, two boats reached a beach near Folkestone within two days without being intercepted. The Home Secretary called the landings unacceptable and ordered officials to review what had happened. Such uncontrolled arrivals remain rare: only four had been recorded since the Home Office began collecting the data in 2023.
The human cost was again stark. On Monday 28 September, a boat carrying 105 people got into difficulty after leaving Blériot beach in the Pas-de-Calais. A ten-year-old child and two women died, while 102 people were rescued.
French officials said passengers appeared to have been crushed on board and blamed the smuggling networks. Days earlier, a man had died after suffering a cardiac arrest as people tried to board a vessel on a beach south of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Politically, the issue remains deeply divisive. Labour’s deputy leader, Lucy Powell, said there was no single switch that would stop the boats. The Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has pledged to be relentless in driving the numbers down.
The opposition parties, meanwhile, offered sharply different solutions. The Conservatives are of the view that everyone arriving illegally to be deported on arrival. The Liberal Democrats want the UK to join the EU’s migration and asylum pact, while Reform UK says it would deploy the Royal Navy.
The End of the UK–France “One In, One Out” Deal
On Wednesday 30th September the Home Office confirmed that the pilot with France was no longer processing new cases. The arrangement, launched in August 2025 and extended in June, had been due to expire on 1 October.
Under the pilot, the UK could return some small boat arrivals to France. In exchange, it accepted an equal number of asylum seekers from France who were judged likely to qualify for protection.
The numbers explain why its loss is more symbolic than practical. By the end of June 2026, 1,087 people had been returned to France and 1,117 had been admitted from France. Over the same period almost 28,000 people arrived by small boat, so only around four per cent were sent back.
The cost was also high. In mid-September the Home Secretary told MPs that each return cost the taxpayer roughly £56,000.
Reports suggest Paris was keen to bring the arrangement to a close, despite the Prime Minister urging President Macron to keep it going. France’s interior minister has made clear he prefers a Europe-wide approach, arguing France should not police the EU’s external border on its own. Burnham, for his part, said leaving the EU had made it harder to stop the boats.
For practitioners, the immediate implications remain uncertain. It is not yet clear how cases already in the system will be resolved, or whether a successor arrangement, potentially at EU level will emerge. For now, however, the Government has no mechanism for returning small boat arrivals to France.
Home Office Guidance and Policy Updates
To view the Home Office Guidance and Policies updated between 25th September 2026 to 2nd October 2026 visit here
Useful Links
Home Office, Small boat arrivals: last 7 days
Home Office, UK Resettlement Scheme reopens for new referrals, GOV.UK, 28 September 2026
BBC News, 781 migrants arrive in small boats in 2026 record, 24 September 2026
BBC News, Mahmood signals rethink on migrants’ right to remain, 28 September 2026
BBC News, Legal advice delays for detained migrants, 28 September 2026
BBC News, Immigration centre expansion inquiry postponed, 29 September 2026
BBC News, Almost 50 arrests in operation targeting cross-border people smugglers, 30 September 2026
BBC News, Restaurant with illegal workers loses licence, 24 September 2026
The Guardian, Shabana Mahmood hints she could water down plans on leave to remain, 28 September 2026
Euronews, Migrant Channel crossing accident leaves three dead, 28 September 2026
Euronews, UK ends ‘one in, one out’ migrant returns deal with France, 30 September 2026
ITV News, UK to restart asylum resettlement scheme, 28 September 2026
Personnel Today, Right-to-work checks: a quick guide to October’s changes
Kent Online, Medway businesses fined after Home Office raids, 26 September 2026
Suffolk News, Barnham and Piddington campaigners, 30 September 2026
Peterborough Today, Fenland council objects to asylum accommodation plan, 28 September 2026
What’s On
With the “one in, one out” pilot ended, removal centres expanding and enforcement funding set to double, removals may accelerate. The Immigration and Asylum Bill could also widen the certification of refusals to support faster removal. If enacted, judicial review will remain a vital safeguard across protection, removal and sponsor licence cases.
HJT Training’s annual Judicial Review Conference on Friday 27 November 2026 brings together leading public law specialists Mark Symes, David Jones, Adrian Berry KC, Duran Seddon KC and Grace Brown, alongside Ranjiv Khubber. For practitioners dealing with an increasingly fast-moving and restrictive environment, the conference offers a valuable opportunity to test current thinking against expert analysis and understand how recent developments may affect case strategy in practice.
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Written by Shareen Khan, Legal Content Writer, HJT Training
Disclaimer: This blog post is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Immigration advisors should consult the full decisions and official policy documents when advising clients on specific cases.