Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to prioritise children from conflict areas re-joining parents who have legally moved to the UK.

The Government provides a safe and legal route to bring families together through its family reunion policy. This allows individuals with a form of protection status in the UK to sponsor their partner or children to stay with or join them here, provided they formed part of the family unit before the sponsor fled their country of origin to seek protection.

We recognise that family members of those with protection status in the UK may be particularly vulnerable. Where the applicant is an unaccompanied child, under the age of 18, we may write to them to obtain any further information which may be required. Such applicants do not need to make a request for prioritisation.

Furthermore, immediate family members of British nationals and those settled in the UK who wish to come and live in the UK can apply under one of the existing family visa routes. Fee waivers are available for those unable to afford the fee.