Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will have discussions with the UNHCR on the potential merits of a family reunion policy which seeks relocation for refugees in countries closer to their country of origin.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

Between 2015 and June 2023, the UK has issued more than 46,511 family reunion visas. More than half of those were issued to children. This is no small number and demonstrates the Government’s commitment to upholding the principle of family unity.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had recent discussions with the UNHCR on the reunification of families in safe countries.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

The FCDO engages systematically with partners, such as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and regularly discusses treatment of refugees, including family reunification. The UK actively promotes the implementation of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention which asserts that a refugee should not be returned to a country where they face serious threats to their life or freedom. We also provide a safe and legal route to bring families together through its family reunion policy. This allows individuals with protection status in the UK to sponsor their partner or children to stay with or join them here.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to Answer of 26 April 2023 to Question 181331 on Refugees: Families, if she will make it her policy to include evidence of risk of (a) violence against women and girls in Iran and (b) mass arrests at peaceful protests as a compelling reason to prioritise a family reunion application.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

It is not appropriate to set out through policy a prescriptive list of circumstances which may lead to an application being prioritised. Instead, where the out-of-country operational team receives a request for prioritisation from an applicant or their representative, a manager will undertake a holistic consideration of the applicant’s individual circumstances to determine whether it should be prioritised.

Those who need international protection should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach. That is the fastest route to safety.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made on concluding the application process for a family reunion visa with reference GWF062464506.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

This visa application is currently under consideration.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Home Office response to report on re-inspection of family reunion applications, published 21 February 2023, and the accepted recommendation from the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration to implement a mechanism to triage family reunion applications after biometrics have been submitted and before the decision-making stage, when the dedicated team to work on this will be in place.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The Home Secretary has fully accepted all the recommendations made in the report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration regarding family reunion applications.

Following the recommendations made, the Home Office has already undertaken a review of resourcing for consideration of Family Reunion visa applications, and have a dedicated resource to identify, for example, unaccompanied children and prioritise their applications.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Home Office response to report on re-inspection of family reunion applications, published on 21 February 2023, and the accepted recommendation from the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) to introduce criteria for expediting applications based on vulnerability, when this criteria will be incorporated into family reunion policy guidance.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The Family Reunion guidance was published on 12 April 2023. This introduced a prioritisation process which includes the expedition of all applications from unaccompanied children. Requests for prioritisation from applicants or their representatives will be determined by a manager, who will undertake a holistic consideration of the applicant’s circumstances.

We are committed to improving and speeding up processing times for all family reunion applications.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Home Office response to report on re-inspection of family reunion applications, published on 21 February 2023, and the accepted recommendation from the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) to dedicate staffing resource to urgently address the work in progress (WIP) prioritising family reunion applications from children separated from both parents, how many full time equivalent decision maker posts (a) are already in place for family reunion applications and (b) will be created to implement that recommendation.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The Secretary of State for the Home Department has fully accepted all the recommendations made in the report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration regarding family reunion applications.

Following the recommendations made, the department has already undertaken a review of its’ resourcing for consideration of Family Reunion visa applications, and we are currently in the process of increasing number of decision makers to speed up processing times.

Since 2015 we have granted approximately 45,000 family reunion visas to the family members of refugees. We prioritise all applications where the application has been made by an unaccompanied child, under the age of 18. We will also prioritise applications where there is an evidenced urgent or compelling reason to do so.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure family reunion applications made by people from Iran at risk of persecution are processed in a timely way.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

It is our long established policy to prioritise applications where there is a particularly urgent or compelling reasons to do so.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time was for her Department to make a decision on a refugee family reunion application in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021 and (d) 2022.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

Information regarding processing times for family reunion applications is not routinely published and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the current average processing times are for Refugee Family Reunion applications outside the rules.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

All applications for refugee family reunion are made on the same visa application form. It is only when an application has been considered that it can be established whether the application falls within the criteria of the Rules or not.

Information regarding processing times is not routinely published and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

We are committed to improving and speeding up processing times for family reunion applications. We are reviewing processes to streamline decision making to enable us to provide a better service to our customers. We always prioritise applications where there is an evidenced urgent or compelling reason to do so.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the current average processing times are for Refugee Family Reunion applications inside the rules.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

All applications for refugee family reunion are made on the same visa application form. It is only when an application has been considered that it can be established whether the application falls within the criteria of the Rules or not.

Information regarding processing times is not routinely published and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

We are committed to improving and speeding up processing times for family reunion applications. We are reviewing processes to streamline decision making to enable us to provide a better service to our customers. We always prioritise applications where there is an evidenced urgent or compelling reason to do so.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to increase the speed and safety of routes (a) parents of children living in the UK and (b) other family reunion.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

These dangerous concealments are facilitated by vile people smugglers, who place profits above the lives of vulnerable people. The Government is determined to prevent further loss of life by breaking the business model.

The Home Office has invested significant amounts since 2014 to secure feeder ports, including increasing the use of body detection dogs and strengthening the vehicle screening regimes with the latest technology. The department is currently in the process of significantly strengthening the clandestine entrant civil penalty regime in order further drive improvements in vehicle security.

Unfortunately, there have been fatalities, including the Purfleet incident in 2019 when 39 Vietnamese nationals sadly lost their lives, and all such incidents are a reminder that attempts to clandestinely cross the border are inherently dangerous.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the impact of the processing time for applications for Refugee Family Reunion on refugees and their families.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The average time it takes to decide or the impact of processing this information is not routinely published and could only be obtained at disproportionate costs. The Home Office are unable to report how many applications for Refugee Family Reunion are awaiting a decision.

We are currently working outside the 60 day service standard for refugee family reunion visa applications and processing times are approximately double the expected service standard timeframe. We are working hard to recover our decision-making timescales and are looking to streamline our processes and secure additional resource to support this work. We will prioritise applications where there is a particularly urgent or compelling reason to do so.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what is the average time it takes to decide Refugee Family Reunion applications.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The average time it takes to decide or the impact of processing this information is not routinely published and could only be obtained at disproportionate costs. The Home Office are unable to report how many applications for Refugee Family Reunion are awaiting a decision.

We are currently working outside the 60 day service standard for refugee family reunion visa applications and processing times are approximately double the expected service standard timeframe. We are working hard to recover our decision-making timescales and are looking to streamline our processes and secure additional resource to support this work. We will prioritise applications where there is a particularly urgent or compelling reason to do so.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for Refugee Family Reunion are awaiting decision.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The average time it takes to decide or the impact of processing this information is not routinely published and could only be obtained at disproportionate costs. The Home Office are unable to report how many applications for Refugee Family Reunion are awaiting a decision.

We are currently working outside the 60 day service standard for refugee family reunion visa applications and processing times are approximately double the expected service standard timeframe. We are working hard to recover our decision-making timescales and are looking to streamline our processes and secure additional resource to support this work. We will prioritise applications where there is a particularly urgent or compelling reason to do so.

UK government urged to honour pledge to Afghan refugees’ families. From the start we have let these people down. Broken promises & false hope. On 31st Jan @CommonsIDC will do an inquiry into this https://t.co/f2QhUaqeSc