Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will improve the accessibility of legal routes of immigration into the UK to facilitate the reunification of families.

The UK already provides a number of legal routes for families to reunite in the UK. In particular:

1) Families can apply under the family Immigration Rules where there is a qualifying partner or child (British or lived continuously in the UK for at least seven years) and it is unreasonable to expect family life to continue outside the UK or for the child to leave.

2) Refugee family reunion policy allows a partner and children under 18 of those granted protection in the UK to join them here, if they formed part of the family unit before the sponsor fled their country.

3) The Dublin III Regulation contains provisions enabling family reunification. In 2019 the UK transferred in 528 people under these provisions. The UK will remain part of the Dublin Regulation until the end of the transition period. Mechanisms for family reunification beyond the transition period is subject to negotiations.