Lord Scriven
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Refugee Family Reunion Scheme
Lord Scriven Excerpts(1 day, 16 hours ago)
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Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
The noble Lord and I have had much discussion on this issue in the last weeks and months. He knows that we have an honest disagreement about how we control some of those issues. He is conflating family reunion and asylum claims with individuals who are potentially coming here through irregular migration by small boats, funded by criminal gangs. He knows we are putting a border command in place to tackle those gangs. He knows we are putting in place measures to criminalise that activity. He knows we are putting in measures to try to stop that, including a scheme with France and scrapping the failed Rwanda scheme. There is an honest disagreement between us, but I hope he will recognise that the Government are acting responsibly in looking at the drivers of family reunion to see if we can make an honest assessment, rather than letting the figures rise uncontrollably, as happened under the last year of the previous Government.
Lord Scriven (LD)
The definition of a family is very clear in the regulations. What kind of relative would the Government deem inappropriate, based on the evidence they have before them in the review that is taking place?
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
We have had a lot of discussion over the last couple of days on the immigration Bill about the question of what forms a relative. Amendments have been proposed to the Bill that would allow grandparents, siblings, cousins and others to come to the United Kingdom as part of the family reunion policy. The Government have resisted those. Part of this review is to look at those very issues: who is coming, why they are coming, what their family relationship is, and why the growth has taken place. It is perfectly responsible for any Government to look at that and to say, “We’ve had an enormous increase in the last three to four years in the numbers who are coming under this route; is that appropriate?” That is what the Government are doing.