Refugee children desperate to be reunited with family in the UK need the government to create new laws before the Brexit transition period ends, campaigners have warned.
On Monday night, peers in the House of Lords ended a campaign to try and enshrine EU family reunion rights for child asylum seekers into the UK legislation after the current laws expire on December 31.
The government argued its own existing routes for family reunion can be used after the transition period ends, but campaigners have repeatedly warned they are not as generous as the EU’s guidelines, and that Brexit will represent the loss of a key legal route for asylum seekers to reunite with family in the UK.
The end of the Lords’ campaign came after two defeats in the Commons, with Tory MPs voting down an amendment to the government’s immigration bill which was led by Labour peer Lord Dubs, who fled the Nazis as a child on the Kindertransport scheme.
Instead, the government has promised a review into its own asylum policy, including a public consultation on family reunion rights for unaccompanied child asylum seekers who are already in Europe.
But charities and campaigners have warned that vulnerable children cannot afford to wait for the outcome of a government review. And one young refugee whose brother joined him in the UK as a result of family reunion protections told HuffPost UK: “People without family are nothing – if you don’t have family, you are lost.”
Jon Featonby, refugee and asylum policy manager at the British Red Cross said there are young children, mothers and fathers living alone and separated from each other who are “desperate to be together again.”
“From New Year’s Day, these people will lose a crucial, safe, legal way to reunite as a family,” he said. “While the government says the UK’s rules will allow families to reunite after this time, in our experience supporting families these rules are too limited and costly for most.”
The British Red Cross welcomes the government review, Featonby said – but it won’t help families “who are currently separated from each other and have often been waiting months, if not years, to reunite”.
“They can’t wait for the outcome of a major review,” he said. “They need solutions now.”
It’s a call that has been echoed by refugee charity Safe Passage which – along with the Hummingbird Project in Brighton – campaigned with young refugees and leaders for MPs and peers to back the Dubs amendment.
“Vulnerable children cannot wait for a review that isn’t due until mid next year when family reunion as we know it will end on 31st December,” said the charity’s CEO Beth Gardiner-Smith.
“The government must act now and make the necessary changes to prevent another tragedy in the Channel.”
One young refugee – who worked with Safe Passage on the campaign but asked not to be named – told HuffPost UK how he was reunited with his younger brother after three years apart, thanks to the current family reunion scheme.
He said: “Before I saw him, I was quite worried about his safety and stuff – he’s my little brother. I was relieved and very happy and grateful to see him again. It was a very good feeling.
“People without family are nothing – if you don’t have family, you are lost. That is how I felt and that is how my brother felt too.”
Boris Johnson and home secretary Priti Patel should “think about what it would be like if it was their family members”, he said.
“Refugees in Greece and Calais are living in terrible conditions,” he continued. “It’s a lot worse than what is shown in the media or what you hear about on Facebook.
“Family means everything to everyone, wherever you come from. Family is family.”
Mo Aljasem, a young leader with the Hummingbird Project, knows first-hand how difficult it is to be separated from family.
“I’m a refugee and I know how hard it is to be away from your family and not be able to see them. I’m an adult – I’m a 24-year-old man,” he said.
“Imagine if it was a kid, 15- or 16-years-old, living in a camp and waiting for someone to make a decision about whether they can be reunited with their family or not.
“How hard would that be for their mums, their family, who are sitting under a roof being safe and warm and able to eat while their kids can’t eat and could be killed or raped any second.
“They could be in any bad situation and no-one will be able to help them,” he added.
Naqeeb, another Hummingbird Project young leader, said that the dangerous routes refugees and asylum seekers take into the UK reinforces the importance of the family reunion scheme.
Many refugees are fleeing to the UK to be with their families, the 20-year-old said.
“So if there is a legal route that children can come safely to the UK to be with their family, why should the UK cut that off?
“Children should not have to make a dangerous journey to be with their family.”
Last month, a family drowned in the Channel while trying to reach the UK from France after a refugee boat sank.
Judith Dennis, policy manager at the Refugee Council said that despite repeated calls from campaigners, “the cold reality is that after Brexit, the options available for child refugees trying to unite with their family in the UK will get narrower”.
“This just isn’t good enough – no child should ever be separated from their parents due to immigration rules,” she said. “Forced displacement is at record levels, and the UK needs to play its part in welcoming refugees, not putting up even more barriers for people fleeing violence and persecution.”
A spokesperson from the Home Office said the the government was “fixing our broken asylum system to make it firm and fair”.
“We will stop abuse of the system while ensuring it is compassionate towards those who need our help, welcoming people through safe and legal routes,” they said.
“We already provide safe and legal routes for adults and children to join family members in the UK, all of which are unaffected by Brexit. In the year ending June 2020, the government issued 6,320 refugee family reunion visas and have issued more than 29,000 in the last five years.”
They added: “The government has committed to review the legal routes to the UK, which will include a public consultation on family reunion for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in the EU.”