Privatised asylum: the UK’s response to protection seekers fleeing Ukraine

This article critically compares the UK's approach towards protection seekers from Ukraine with the country’s asylum system and refugee resettlement schemes, as well as with the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive (TPD) and visa-based approaches adopted by other Anglo-Saxon countries. In a restrictive vs liberal framework, the UK’s Ukraine schemes would suggest that the country is taking a liberal approach. However, by also considering a selective vs universal axis, a more nuanced picture emerges. The response to protection seekers from Ukraine could be seen as a U-turn for the UK government, but we argue that it is better understood in terms of ‘bespokism’, referring to the increasing reliance on ad hoc schemes as the policy response to protection needs. Such schemes entail selective, differentiated and time-limited forms of protection consistent with the UK’s increasing outsourcing of welfare. Drawing on a comprehensive review of asylum policies in the period 2015–2025 and original qualitative research including interviews with Ukrainian visa-holders, UK hosts, experts, and frontline and support workers, the case study offers insights into the UK’s changing post-Brexit migration regime and complex policy landscape vis-à-vis forced migrants. It adds nuance to discussions of a ‘unified European approach’ towards Ukrainians fleeing the war.