IAA Roundtable: The Erosion of Rights and Protection for Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Migrants in the UK

In June 2024, the first in a planned series of Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) roundtables was convened to explore the erosion of rights and protections for asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants in the UK. The roundtable examined how law, policy, and practice intersect, and how these interactions shape outcomes for people navigating the UK migration system.

The event brought together 21 participants from across the UK, including academic researchers, policy professionals, and practitioners working in the migration, asylum, and refugee sectors. Participants represented a range of perspectives, including legal analysis, research, policy development, advocacy, and frontline service delivery. The roundtable was intentionally cross-sectoral, creating space for dialogue between actors who do not routinely convene together.

Focus of the Roundtable

Discussions centred on the progressive erosion of protection across the migrant journey, from arrival through to settlement and integration. Participants explored challenges related to modes of arrival, border control and processing, detention, living conditions, and access to services. The conversation also considered the UK’s obligations under international, regional, and domestic legal frameworks, including refugee and human rights law, and how these obligations are interpreted and implemented in practice.
The roundtable adopted an intersectional approach, recognising that legal restrictions, policy design, and systemic constraints interact to compound vulnerability and limit access to rights. Both long-standing structural issues and emerging challenges within the current migration landscape were examined.

Impact and Outcomes

A core objective of the roundtable was to strengthen connections between research, policy, and practice. The session supported relationship-building and knowledge exchange across sectors, helping to surface shared challenges, gaps between evidence and implementation, and opportunities for collaboration.
The roundtable identified clear potential for future partnership-based work, particularly the development of collaborative projects and applications for Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) funding. By convening diverse actors around shared questions, the event laid groundwork for further co-produced research, learning, and policy-engagement activities.

This first roundtable established a foundation for an ongoing series aimed at supporting impact-driven collaboration within the UK migration, asylum, and refugee sector.