August 3, 2022
The Government’s Nationality and Borders Act makes significant changes to refugee family reunion. On 6th July, the Families Together coalition brought together more than 50 family reunion practitioners to consider the impact of the changes. The key change introduced by the Act is ‘differential treatment’, where family reunion rights are now linked to the way…
View ArticleJuly 21, 2022
Mimi, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, shares her experience of family separation and reunion. Being apart from my family was like living with an oxygen mask, I was suffocated, unable to live knowing that my family was left behind in an unknown circumstance. Not knowing if there will ever be a chance…
View ArticleJuly 8, 2022
On Friday 8th July, the Family Reunion Bill passed its second reading the House of Lords. If enacted, the Bill would allow refugee children to sponsor their parents and siblings to join them in safety in the UK. It would also allow adult refugees to sponsor a greater range of family members and reintroduce legal…
View ArticleJune 28, 2022
A letter signed by coalition members was published in The Times on Saturday 25th June calling for the government to enable Afghan evacuees to reunite with their family members. The letter was signed by: Enver Solomon, CEO, Refugee Council Mike Adamson, chief executive, British Red Cross Dr Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah, chief executive, Oxfam GB Sacha Deshmukh,…
View ArticleApril 28, 2022
The Families Together Coalition is bitterly disappointed that the Government’s harmful Nationality and Borders Bill has received royal assent to become law. We remain deeply concerned about the impact this Act will have on the thousands of women and children who would have had access to a safe and regular route to join loved ones…
View ArticleApril 19, 2022
The Families Together Coalition firmly opposes the government’s plan to transfer people seeking asylum who arrive irregularly in the UK to Rwanda where their asylum claim will be heard under the Rwandan asylum system rather than the UK system. The policy is wrong in principle and unworkable in practice. We are concerned that this policy…
View ArticleMarch 29, 2022
By introducing the Ukraine Family Scheme, the government has demonstrated that it is possible to expand existing immigration rules to support refugees to reunite with their loved ones – where there is the political will. The Ukraine Family Scheme expands an existing family visa route, which allows the family members of British nationals and people…
View ArticleMarch 17, 2022
Representatives from the Refugee Council, Amnesty International UK and refugees representing the VOICES Network[1], posed for photos outside the Prime Minister’s residence holding placards reading,’36,500 believe families belong together.’ Every day, refugee families are torn apart by war and terror – during the brutality of conflict or in the urgency of fleeing a warzone. After…
View ArticleJanuary 21, 2022
This briefing focuses on the provisions about the asylum system set out in Part 2- Clause 11 and in Part 5- Clause 69. The differential treatment outlined in clause 11 punishes refugees based on the way that they arrived in the UK. UNHCR has stated that the creation of Group 2 refugees is discriminatory and…
View ArticleJanuary 14, 2022
The deaths of 27 people in the channel on the 24th of November 2021 was a stark reminder ofthe desperate situation people looking for safety find themselves in. No one chooses to crossthe channel, the busiest shipping lane in the world, unless they have no other option. They havefled their home countries fleeing war, violence,…
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