Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress she has made on updating refugee family reunion provisions, including expected timescales for implementation following the suspension of previous refugee family reunion routes.

This Government recognises the importance of family unity and acknowledges that people who seek protection in the UK may have been separated from their families by conflict, persecution or circumstances beyond their control.

Our reforms to the asylum system, announced last autumn, mean that those granted protection will not have an automatic right to family reunion. Those who successfully move off Core Protection and enter a Work and Study visa route could become eligible to sponsor family members to come to the UK.

Our new approach will strike a fair balance between the circumstances of individual families and the wider public interest. It will be flexible enough to protect the most vulnerable while ensuring the system remains controlled and sustainable. Detailed future arrangements for family members of people with protection status remain under development.

Applications made under Appendix Family Reunion before the suspension continue to be considered under the rules in place at the time they applied.

During the suspension, other family routes, including Appendix FM, are available for family members of sponsors with protection, if they consider they meet the relevant immigration rules. More information on family visas can be found on GOV.UK at: Family visas: apply, extend or switch: Overview - GOV.UK.