Refugees: Children
(asked on 20th December 2018) - View Source
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 23 October 2018 to Question 179213 on Asylum: Children, how many of the of the unaccompanied children who were granted asylum in the UK in 2017 made applications for refugee family reunion outside of the immigration rules; and how many of those applications were granted by (a) the Home Office and (b) an immigration judge.
There is currently no provision in the Immigration Rules for Unaccompanied children who were granted asylum in the UK to sponsor family members to make applications for family reunion outside of the immigration rules.
Allowing children to sponsor family members could create further incentives for more children to be encouraged, or even forced, to leave their family and risk hazardous journeys to the UK to sponsor relatives. This plays into the hands of criminal gangs who exploit vulnerable people and goes against our safeguarding responsibilities.
The Government believes the best interests of children are reflected in remaining with their families, claiming asylum in the first safe country they reach that is the fastest route to safety and relying on resettlement schemes to travel safely.
Available information relates to refugee family reunion applications received in total, from each nationality and how many were accepted in 2018 is published in the quarterly Immigration Statistics at:
All those issued a family reunion visa are granted leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom, not asylum. The family reunion application process does not require an assessment of the applicant’s international protection needs. It is the family member in the UK that is required to have been granted refugee status or Humanitarian Protection.