Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department are being taken to reunify unaccompanied child refugees in the UK with their direct relatives.

Our family reunion policy allows immediate family members of those granted protection here to reunite with them. The Immigration Rules also provide for relatives with protection in the UK to sponsor children in serious and

compelling circumstances and the Mandate resettlement scheme allows those recognised by the UNCHR as refugees to join close family members here in the UK.

In addition, there is provision in the policy to grant visas outside the Rules in exceptional circumstances, which caters for family members who otherwise do not qualify under the Rules.

However, there is no provision in the Rules for children with refugee status in the UK to sponsor family members to join them. We believe this would create additional motives for more children to be encouraged, or even forced, to leave their family, and risk hazardous journeys hoping to sponsor relatives later. This would play into the hands of criminal gangs who exploit vulnerable people, and goes against our wider safeguarding responsibilities. 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.