Government commits to family reunion in EU negotiations.

This week the Government published their statement on the future of child refugee family reunion, as obligated in law under the EU Withdrawal Act.

We welcome the Government confirming a proposal for a reciprocal agreement for child refugee family reunion has been put forward with the EU as part of negotiations which protects the right to reunite with a wide range of family members who are legally present in the UK. 

This must be underpinned, however, by other protections currently in the EU family reunion law that have not been committed to by the Government which ensure the process works effectively, such as clear deadlines for how long the process should take. Furthermore, we believe the principles of this agreement must be enshrined in UK law to make it enforceable and to strengthen it. 

We also urge the UK Government and the EU to take this opportunity to not just do the bare minimum but to improve the system so that it works better for refugees, including making the process quicker and allowing cousins to act as sponsors. 

The Coronavarius and suspensions of asylum applications in many countries raise the serious risk that families who are currently separated will fail to access family reunion before the 31 December 2020 deadline to the transition period. We call on the Home Office to begin concrete contingency planning right now - if they are not already - to ensure if an agreement is not reached by the end of the transition period refugees do not lose this safe, legal route to their loved ones.