Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her Department's policy is on family reunion for unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

The Government remains resolutely committed to the principle of family reunion.

The UK will cease to participate in EU instruments at the end of the Transition Period, including the Dublin Regulation. This means that the ability of unaccompanied children to use Dublin to reunite with family will end, unless a replacement agreement is negotiated. The Government has been clear that it is committed to seeking such an agreement with the EU, thereby ensuring these children can continue to reunite with family at the end of the Transition Period. The Home Secretary wrote to the European Commission on 22 October to begin negotiations.

The UK will continue to be bound by the Dublin Regulation provisions during the Transition Period, allowing us to continue to transfer family reunion cases to the UK throughout 2020, and we will continue to process all family reunion requests that have been submitted but not completed under Dublin before the end of the Transition Period.