Families fleeing war will be split this Christmas – thanks to the UK's 'cruel' immigration system

Christmas is fast approaching. This is a time when families should be together. Sadly, at the Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex and London (RAMFEL), every day we see families separated by conflict and desperately seeking to reunite in the UK.  

The UK’s family reunion system is though designed not to achieve reunification but ensure continued separation. While politicians obsess over numbers, they rarely if ever actually consider the people behind the raw statistics and the harm that is caused by cruel, oppressive and usually counter-productive immigration policies. This is never clearer than with refugees desperately seeking to bring their loved ones here. 

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Last week, the government published the latest migration statistics. News that the original 2023 figures underestimated the number of arrivals grabbed the headlines and predictably saw senior politicians rushing to blame their adversaries. Home secretary Yvette Cooper said that it was the Tories’ fault that numbers were so high; former home secretaries James Cleverly and Suella Braverman claimed that a reduction in the 2024 figures showed punitive measures they introduced were working. No politician to our knowledge asked the question: why are these numbers a bad thing? 

Scratching beneath the surface of these numbers also shows just how restrictive many parts of the UK’s immigration system are, despite claims to the contrary by almost every politician. 2024’s figures show reduced numbers: 728,000 new arrivals. The government granted just 19,154 family reunion visas though, meaning less than 3% of the arrivals were refugee families reuniting.  

For refugees seeking to rebuild their lives, reuniting with loved ones – especially those who remain in grave danger in conflict zones – is usually far and away their priority upon reaching sanctuary. That less than 20,000 people were able to secure visas under existing family reunion rules, despite 52,739 people being granted refugee status in the same period shows just how labyrinth and unfit for purpose the current rules are. 

As a legal action charity specialising in complex family reunion work, we see these problems first-hand. For those in conflict zones, even making a family reunion application is essentially impossible, as you must attend a visa centre to enrol your biometrics before the government will even look at your case. In conflict zones such as Gaza, Sudan and Afghanistan there is no visa centre, meaning people in these countries cannot even make an application to come to the UK. When we say safe routes don’t exist, we mean it.  

Robert Jenrick, while immigration minister, decided this problem could be solved by telling unaccompanied children to make irregular border crossings to neighbouring countries where visa centres operated. It is not possible to express how dangerous it is for a child in Sudan or Gaza to attempt to cross into Egypt with no visa, but Jenrick, like his successors, was happy to do anything to keep numbers down. 

If by some minor miracle people in these countries do manage to apply for family reunion, they face lengthy waiting times and encounter a government pre-disposed to try and refuse their claims. Our recent report, Safe Routes to Nowhere, evidenced how in some visa routes open to refugee family members the government refuses 87% of applications. These refusal decisions are frequently overturned on appeal. However, this whole process takes around two years and for those living in extreme danger, they simply cannot sit tight waiting for the wheels of bureaucracy to turn. 

For people in places such as Sudan, they face no other option than taking flight and seeking safety by irregular means. It’s no coincidence that Afghans account for 15% of boat arrivals, with Iranians, Syrians and Eritreans also in the top five. Tellingly, no Ukrainians – another country beset by war – have crossed the Channel because the government rightly opened up safe routes for them and greatly reduced bureaucracy and processing times. 

With all these challenges, refugees require expert legal advice to even attempt applying to reunite with their loved ones. Legal aid cuts have though meant many simply cannot access such advice, meaning the work of charities such as ours is critical.  

Our family reunion casework would though be impossible without the generous donations of our supporters. This is why RAMFEL have signed up to the Big Give’s Christmas Challenge. Every £1 donated to RAMFEL through the Big Give from 3^rd – 10^th of December will be doubled, and all money raised will help more refugee families reunite in 2025. 

Confidence in the Labour government opening up more safe routes for those in conflict zones is already fast fading. Ultimately, if they wish to avoid more tragedies unfolding in the Channel, the government must urgently expand family reunion by adopting a more flexible definition of “family member”, better suited to conflict settings, and reduce bureaucracy and application processing times. However, until that happens we will continue working tirelessly to reunite separated families. 

Nick Beales is head of campaigning at Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex and London (RAMFEL). RAMFEL are a legal action charity based in East London. You can donate to their Big Give campaign here.

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