Safe Passage in 2020

The global pandemic affected all of our lives in 2020, and not least the lives of people in Europe trying to reach sanctuary.  

The current Covid-19 crisis poses huge challenges. Travel restrictions set in across Europe meaning had to stay in dangerous camps far longer than they would have had it not been for the pandemic.

Government departments shut down, creating an even larger backlog of cases. Children have turned 18 and therefore can no longer access family reunion. During this period, we saw a stark increase in demand for our services. Between April and June, we doubled the number of cases our UK legal team took on compared to the previous time-period. In Greece, we began coordinating a consortium of charities to investigate issues and recommend changes in practice to the Greek authorities based on the situation for refugees resulting from the pandemic. 

Thanks to our efforts though, in May 2020, 47 people were brought to safety on an extraordinary flight to the UK from Greece. They had all been accepted to be in the UK but their travel was halted by the pandemic.

With our network of dedicated campaigners, we continued to fight for the protection of children and families after Brexit, which loomed on the 31 December 2020. Three significant votes were won in the House of Lords on the EU (withdrawal) Bill and the Immigration Bill, resulting in the government pledging to review family reunion.  Sadly however, family reunion to the UK as we had known it since 2015 stopped as a result of Brexit.  

Despite the above challenges, 87 children and families were brought to safety during this year, a marked increase on previous years.