Refugees: Children

(asked on 4th September 2017) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to ensure that unaccompanied child refugees are able to be reunited with their families in the UK once the UK leaves the EU.


Answered by
Brandon Lewis Portrait
Brandon Lewis
This question was answered on 12th September 2017

The UK strongly supports the principle of family unity and there are already legal routes for families to be reunited safely that are not dependent on our EU membership. The UK’s family reunion policy is generous, and we have and continue to reunite refugees with their immediate family, including granting over 23,000 family reunion visas over the last five years.

The EU Dublin Regulation determines the Member State with responsibility for assessing an asylum claim. Under the Regulation unaccompanied children present in another EU Member State can be transferred to the UK to have their asylum claim assessed where they have a qualifying family member or relative legally present and transfer is in their best interests. We expect cooperation on asylum and migration with our European partners to continue after the UK leaves the EU, and will discuss the exact nature of this cooperation in the negotiations.

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