September 13, 2021
On Friday afternoon, the 10th of September, the second reading of Baroness Ludford’s Refugees (Family Reunion) bill passed its second reading in the house of Lords. The ongoing crisis in Afghanistan has highlighted the vital importance of the measures in the bill, which seek to ensure that more refugees can be joined by family members…
View ArticleSeptember 6, 2021
Addis arrived in the UK in 2008 as an asylum seeker from Eritrea. She had left behind her husband and her 5-year-old daughter back home. She received a positive decision on her asylum case about 3 months ago, 13 years after her initial application. During the waiting period, Addis was left to rely on charities…
View ArticleJuly 21, 2021
On Monday the 19th and Tuesday the 20th of July, a parliamentary debate took place concerning the proposed changes to the UK asylum system laid out in the Nationality and Borders bill. At the close of yesterday’s debate, 366 MPs voted in favour of the bill, with 265 MPs voting against. The proposed legislation outlined…
View ArticleJuly 9, 2021
This template has been created to enable you to write to your MP to ask them to sign the letter being sent to Chris Philip, the Minister for Immigration asking for clarity around these proposed restrictions to refugee family reunion. At present, we have not received any clarity from the government about what these restrictions…
View ArticleJuly 8, 2021
On the 6th of July 2021, the Home Office published the Nationality and Borders Bill, outlining proposed changes to the UK’s immigration and asylum systems. We are deeply concerned that the Bill seeks to cement many of the harmful proposals outlined in the New Plan for Immigration into UK law. The proposed legislation outlined in…
View ArticleJuly 5, 2021
In 2018, my ex-husband came to the UK as asylum seeker. Because of the conflict in Syria we first escaped to Kuwait. My partner was wanted by the Syrian government and we had to flee to find security and safety. He continued his asylum journey to find safety and he travelled from Kuwait to Greece…
View ArticleJuly 2, 2021
A new report released today by the Refugee Council exposes the colossal surge in asylum decision backlogs over the last number of years. The report states that by the end of March 2021, there were a staggering 66,185 people awaiting an initial decision from the Home Office. Of these, three quarters, over 50,000 people had…
View ArticleJune 21, 2021
With the prospect of all COVID restrictions being lifted in the UK in the next 4 weeks, families across the country are looking forward to being able to reunite with one another, to see the return of birthday parties, school graduation celebrations, Sunday afternoon family dinners. Yet, for many refugee’s living in the UK there…
View ArticleJune 10, 2021
Liberal Democrat peer Sarah Ludford is tabling new legislation that would mean more refugee children, torn apart by war, conflict and persecution, are able to reunite safely in the UK. Baroness Ludford introduced the Refugees (Family Reunion) Bill in the House of Lords on Tuesday 8th June. Backed by the Families Together Coalition[1], a group…
View ArticleApril 30, 2021
This guide has been created by the Families Together coalition. It includes how the Families Together coalition plans to respond to each section of the consultation which relates to family reunification. We are aware that some questions in the consultation relating to family reunion are not covered in this guide (E.g. question 9). This is…
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