Families belong together: Fixing the UK’s broken family reunion system
UK policy allows refugees who have been separated from their loved ones to sponsor their immediate family to join them in safety without the need to take perilous journeys to be reunited, but this system is
failing the families who rely on it
. There is a
huge backlog of undecidedcases
and
several large gaps in family reunion policy
that mean some separated families are left without any feasible option to safely reunite.
In this joint report with Safe Passage International, we highlight the key gaps in family reunion policy that are keeping refugee families apart
. These include:
Children outside the UK being unable to join their non-parent adult relatives in the UK
Separated refugee children in the UK not having the right to bring their parents or siblings
Resettled Afghans who were evacuated to the UK not having access to family reunion
Ukrainians who came to the UK on bespoke refugee schemes being excluded from family reunion
