Briefing: refugee family reunion

Refugee Action believes that refugees in the UK should be able to be reunited with their close family members. Allowing families to be reunited boosts refugees’ ability to successfully integrate and build independent lives in the UK. It can also provide a legal and relatively safe means of entering the UK for a refugee’s close relatives.

Unfortunately, many current policies and practices mean that family reunion is often a fraught process for many refugees. Too often, this results in applications failing, or not being made in the first place, for families who can and should be reunited. It can also lead to relatives being forced to make dangerous journeys to reach their loved ones in the UK.

This briefing sets out some of the main challenges which refugees experience in making family reunion applications and Refugee Action’s proposals on how these barriers can be removed.