Yvette Cooper has been accused of pushing children “into the arms of people smugglers” after halting a scheme allowing refugees to bring their families to the UK.

The home secretary said the refugee family reunion route was at risk of being exploited and she would temporarily suspend new applications until tougher rules were introduced next year.

People who have had their asylum claims accepted will instead have to apply through the standard family scheme, which applies to UK citizens who have to show they have a joint income of at least £29,000 a year before they are allowed to bring a partner to the UK.

Keir Starmer’s government is under pressure over immigration after a summer of protests outside hotels used to house asylum seekers while their claims are being assessed.

There has been a fivefold increase in the number of refugees’ family members granted visas to come to the UK, from 4,300 in 2023 to 20,600 in the year to this March.

In a statement to the Commons, Cooper said people smugglers were exploiting the family scheme to promote dangerous Channel boat crossings to potential asylum seekers. “We need to address the immediate pressures on local authorities and the risks from criminal gangs using family reunion as a pull factor to encourage more people on to boats,” she told MPs.

“Therefore we are bringing forward new immigration rules this week to temporarily suspend new applications under the existing dedicated refugee family reunion route. Until the new framework is introduced, refugees will be covered by the same family migration rules and conditions as everyone else.”

Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “Until now, family reunion has been one of the only safe and legal routes available that allows refugees fleeing war and persecution to be reunited with their partner and children.

“Far from stopping people taking dangerous journeys to cross the Channel, these changes will only push more desperate people into the arms of smugglers.”

Critics have accused Cooper of hypocrisy, pointing out that in 2021 she told the Commons: “If there are not safe legal routes for family reunion, we end up with more people driven into the hands of dangerous criminal gangs.”

Gunes Kalkan, the head of campaigns at the children’s charity Safe Passage, said the change would have “disastrous consequences” for unaccompanied children trying to join their families in the UK. He added: “We’re talking about children from conflict and high human rights abuse areas, such as Afghanistan, Sudan and Iran, who have been torn apart from family in the chaos.”

Mubeen Bhutta, the director of policy at British Red Cross, said: “Today’s announcement will separate families and cut off one of the only safe and managed routes for children to seek protection. The vast majority of people who use family reunion visas are children and women, often trapped in very dangerous situations.”

Cooper told MPs that six years ago refugees who applied to bring family to the UK did so on average close to 18 months after they were granted protection, allowing applicants to find work. Applications now came in on average within a month, with some councils finding that more than a quarter of their family homelessness applications were linked to refugee family reunion, she said.

Home Office figures show there were 20,817 refugee family reunion visas issued in the year to June 2025, 93% of which were granted to children or women. More than half of the visas, 11,641, were issued to children. Two-thirds of visas were issued to nationals of five countries – Syria with 3,808, Iran 3,619, Afghanistan 2,569, Eritrea 1,963 and Sudan 1,804.

Cooper suggested the new scheme could be modelled on those in Europe such as Denmark and Switzerland, where migrants have to wait two years before being allowed to reunite their families after being granted refugee status.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC), the chief executive of which is the former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband, called the move “deeply alarming”. Flora Alexander, the IRC’s UK executive director, said: “Narrowing access for people seeking to reunite with loved ones is not a solution to system pressures; it risks pushing more people toward dangerous journeys and represents a step away from compassion and common sense.”

Cooper also told MPs:

• Reforms to family reunion routes would be introduced to the Commons next month and become law in the spring.

• The first returns of rejected asylum seekers to France under a “one in, one out” deal would take place this month.

• She would set up a new independent body to process a backlog of immigration and asylum appeals.

Earlier on Monday, Starmer said he wanted to speed up efforts to empty hotels housing people awaiting asylum decisions before the next election. He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “We’ve said we’ll get rid of them [asylum hotels] by the end of the parliament. I would like to bring that forward, I think it is a good challenge. I want to bring that forward.”

The SNP MP Pete Wishart told MPs he thought the government was encouraging Reform UK by refusing to speak up for asylum seekers. “Doesn’t [Yvette Cooper] realise that every time she moves on to the ground of Reform, all she is doing is further encouraging and emboldening them?” he said.

Cooper said she had spoken positively about asylum seekers. But she said the public wanted the asylum system to be “properly controlled and managed”.

The government has committed to stop using hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of the parliament, which could be as late as 2029, but the prime minister suggested on Monday he wanted to “bring that forward”.

Speaking to 5 Live, Starmer said he understood concerns about migration, describing it as a “really serious issue”. Asked to commit to a date to empty asylum hotels, he said: “Well, we’ve said we’ll get rid of them by the end of the parliament. I would like to bring that forward, I think it is a good challenge. I want to bring that forward.”