4 November 2025: Status Now is signatory to the Reunite Families UK initiative organised by JCWI. It is campaigning to preserve the right to refugee family reunion current under threat by the government.
Reunite Families UK: The government has shut down refugee family reunion — turning in effect a “temporary pause” into a permanent ban. You can following campaign developments on this BlueSky list: https://bsky.app/profile/rfuk.bsky.social/post/3m4sdxdbj6s2x
Reunite Families UK: Over 60 orgs condemn suspension of refugee family reunion route
Reunite Families UK, together with the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants coordinated a statement that has been signed by over 60 organisations across the UK condemning the suspension of the refugee family reunion route.
We are appalled and outraged by the government’s unexpected and cruel suspension of applications for refugee family reunion, first announced in early September, and the more recent announcement to permanently strip refugees of this fundamental right.
What was initially described as a temporary measure has become a full-scale closure of the route. Refugees now face impossibly strict requirements that many people in our communities already struggle to overcome. Forcing people to meet a minimum income requirement that 50% of the UK working population would not meet is ludicrous, intentionally cruel and inhumane.
This tears families apart, denying people – many of whom have had to deal with traumatic circumstances and journeys – the opportunity to reunite with their loved ones in a place of safety. As we see time and time again, closing off safe routes doesn’t stop people from moving. It will leave people stranded in dangerous and life-threatening situations, forcing more families to take perilous journeys in order to reunite with their loved ones. Moreover, this change will disproportionately affect women and children. In the year to June 2025, more than 20,000 refugee family reunion visas issued, of which nine in ten or 93% were issued to children or adult women. More than half were issued to children.
In addition, people were only given a matter of hours to send family reunion submissions before the deadline. This meant that legal representatives were forced to work under extremely difficult circumstances to submit applications to ensure that our clients could have some chance of being reunited with their families.
It is yet another knee-jerk change to the immigration system, and another attack on people seeking safety. Like previous attacks, it is a hurried and blatant attempt to reflect Reform’s far-right policies and appeal to their supporters, underpinned by racist anti-migrant sentiment, without any consideration of the enormous impact these changes have on those living here in the UK. People and communities are being played against each other, in a classic example of divide and rule. We must not let the government come between us.
In the case of one of JCWI’s clients, there was only time to submit an application for family reunion for his wife and not for his two children, meaning that this family are now plunged into an administratively complex situation. He had been granted refugee status and was finally able to reassure his family that they would be able to reunite soon, only to have the rug pulled out from under his feet without any prior notice. He now faces having to pay fees to make applications for their two children, or to submit fee waivers and wait possibly months for a response before even being able to submit applications for the two children.
Families belong together. We call on the government to immediately reverse this cruel and heartless policy and reinstate the right to family reunion for all refugees and provide accessible and safe routes for all. Meanwhile, we must continue to try to build communities of solidarity and hope.
List of Signatories
- African Rainbow Family
- Asylum Link Merseyside
- Asylum Matters
- Baobab Women’s Project CIC
- Big Leaf Foundation
- Bindmans LLP
- Care4Calais
- Citizens Advice Newcastle
- Daaro youth project
- FODI (Friends Of the Drop In for asylum seekers and refugees, Sunderland)
- Govan Community Project
- Happy Women’s Group
- Haringey Migrant Support Centre
- Haringey Welcome
- Helen Bamber Foundation
- Hibiscus
- Indoamerican Refugee and Migrant Organisation (IRMO)
- Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
- Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS)
- Law Centre NI
- Liberal Democrats 4 Seekers of Sanctuary
- Manchester Migrant Solidarity
- Maryhill Integration Network
- Medact
- Migrant Centre NI
- Migrant Voice
- Music Action International
- New Europeans UK
- Oasis
- Oasis Church Birmingham
- Oasis Church Centre
- Olton Friary Justice & Peace Group
- Positive Action For Refugees and Asylum Seekers (PAFRAS)
- Praxis
- RAMFEL
- RAMFEL (Refugee and Migrant Forum for Essex and London)
- Refugee Action
- Refugee Support Group
- Rene Cassin
- Reunite Families UK
- Samphire
- Seraphus
- Shropshire Supports Refugees
- Social Workers Without Borders
- South East and East Asian Women’s Association
- South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG)
- Southeast and East Asian Centre CIC (SEEAC)
- Stand For All
- Status Now 4 All
- the3million
- Voices in Exile
- Walking-Waling.org
- Women Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Migrants (WARM)
- Young Roots
Read more: https://reunitefamiliesuk.co.uk/over-60-orgs-condemn-suspension-of-refugee-family-reunion-route/