Home secretary announces shakeup of family reunion rules for asylum seekers

The location caput has announced a shakeup of household reunion rules for refugees successful a bid to deter tiny vessel crossings.

Yvette Cooper said radical smugglers were utilizing the committedness of household reunion to beforehand unsafe journeys crossed the Channel.

Addressing the House of Commons, Ms Cooper said the authorities would present suspend caller applications nether the existing household reunion way for refugees until a caller model had been introduced.

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She highlighted however exile families arriving successful the UK were seeking homelessness assistance, putting unit connected section authorities that was "not sustainable".

Ms Cooper told MPs the authorities would present an asylum argumentation connection aboriginal this year, which would acceptable retired a caller strategy for household migration, with the purpose of having "some of those changes successful spot for the spring".

She said it would look astatine publication requirements and whether determination should beryllium longer periods earlier recently granted refugees tin use for household reunion.

"Even conscionable earlier the pandemic, refugees who applied to bring household to the UK did truthful connected mean much than 1 oregon 2 years aft they had been granted protection, agelong capable for them to beryllium capable to get jobs oregon find housing, oregon beryllium capable to supply their household with immoderate support," she explained.

"In Denmark and Switzerland, currently, those granted humanitarian extortion are not capable to use to bring household for astatine slightest 2 years aft extortion has been granted. But present successful the UK now, however, those applications travel successful connected mean successful astir a period aft extortion has been granted, often adjacent earlier a recently granted exile has near asylum accommodation.

"As a consequence, exile families who get are acold much apt to beryllium seeking homelessness assistance.

"And immoderate councils are uncovering that much than a 4th of their household homelessness applications are linked to exile household reunion. That is not sustainable."

The location caput continued: "Therefore, we are bringing guardant caller migration rules this week to temporarily suspend caller applications nether the existing dedicated exile household reunion route.

"Until the caller model is introduced, refugees volition beryllium covered by the aforesaid household migration rules and conditions arsenic everyone else."

The determination comes arsenic the authorities struggles to header with the continued accomplishment of tiny boats successful the Channel, which person reached 29,003 - the highest connected grounds for this constituent successful a year.

There is palpable choler successful definite communities astatine the usage of hotels to location asylum seekers, astir notably successful Epping, Essex, wherever determination were protests astatine the play aft the authorities successfully overturned a impermanent injunction which would person blocked asylum seekers from staying astatine the Bell Hotel.

The protests prompted Nigel Farage, the person of Reform UK, to pass determination was a "genuine menace to nationalist order".

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He has promised to deport up to 600,000 asylum seekers successful the archetypal parliament of a Reform UK authorities if helium wins the adjacent predetermination - a program opponents person criticised arsenic unworkable.

The location caput said the authorities was moving "at pace" to extremity the usage of each asylum hotels, and said they would beryllium closed "for good" nether a "controlled, managed and orderly programme - driving down inflow into the asylum system, clearing the appeals backlog... and continuing to summation returns".

She added: "I recognize and hold with section councils and communities who privation the asylum hotels successful their communities closed due to the fact that we request to adjacent each asylum hotels, and we request to bash truthful for good, but that indispensable beryllium done successful a controlled and orderly manner, and not done a instrumentality to the erstwhile government's chaos that led to the opening of hotels successful the archetypal place."

'Things are getting worse'

In response, shadiness location caput Chris Philp said Channel crossings were up 38% connected the erstwhile year, adding: "Things are not getting immoderate better, they are getting worse."

He said "tweaking the household reunion rules is not enough" and referred again to the Tories' Rwanda scheme, which Labour scrapped connected winning office.