Campaigners have raised concerns about the high proportion of refugees seeking to join family members in the UK who have their applications rejected by the government, despite using the “safe and legal routes” touted by the home secretary.
Data obtained via freedom of information request by the charity Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex and London (Ramfel) showed that 1,386 refugee family reunion applications rejected by the Home Office were overturned on appeal between 2019 and 2022. That represents 66% of the total of 2,106.
Just 34% of Home Office decisions to reject family reunion visas – 720 – were upheld by judges.
Nick Beales, head of campaigning at Ramfel, said: “Suella Braverman and her colleagues insist people should use ‘safe routes’ to come to the UK, yet in practice such routes barely exist. That the vast majority of these refusals are overturned on appeal, year on year, raises serious concerns about the quality of Home Office decision-making.
“A further lengthy appeal process is also not an adequate safeguard when people applying to join family here are often extremely vulnerable children, living in an unsafe environment and at risk of trafficking, exploitation, or kidnapping.”
The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and Braverman have repeatedly pledged to stop asylum seekers travelling across the Channel to the UK in dangerous small boats, insisting that alternative “safe and legal” routes are available to them.
But in a widely reported exchange during an evidence session at parliament’s home affairs committee last November, Braverman floundered when questioned by her Conservative colleague Tim Loughton MP about how few options were available to some genuine refugees.
One of the few safe routes the government makes available is refugee family reunion. This allows close family members such as a spouse and children under 18 to reunite with an adult who has been granted refugee status in the UK.
Government data shows that the applications for refugee family reunion have reduced by 40% since 2019.
Home Office refusal of genuine refugee family reunion applications can be a matter of life and death when people are stranded in conflict zones like Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.
A recent report from the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration published in February 2023 was highly critical of the Home Office refugee family reunion process, finding that the “Home Office’s performance has actually deteriorated” since a previous inspection in 2019.
The report said: “There was no evidence of any prioritisation of these based on vulnerability. Applications sat in a pile and would only be expedited as a result of MP correspondence, the threat of litigation or sheer luck.” The Home Office accepted the recommendations of the inspection report.
A government spokesperson said: “The UK has a proud history of providing safe and legal routes for those who need it. Our family reunion policy is just one of many, and has reunited many refugees with their family members.
“More than 46,200 family reunion visas have been granted since 2015, with over half issued to children. We consider every application very carefully; however, individuals do have the right to appeal and often further evidence is submitted at appeal which wasn’t available at the initial decision.”
