Family visa rules failing migrants and society, Lords committee says

Migration policy should ensure sufficient protection of family life, peers say

A group thought to be migrants arrives in Dungeness, Kent. The Lords committee described current policies to process such arrivals as extreme. PA

The UK's migration policies are failing families as they force loved ones to live apart and add to the trauma child refugees already endure, a Lords Committee has said.

The rules are being complex and inconsistent, peers said as they accused the Home Office of being “systematically deficient in its processing of family visa applications”.

The House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee said in a report published on Tuesday that delays “pile up”, communication is “appallingly poor”, evidential requirements are “excessively complex” and that applicants can be left “distraught”.

They called on the best interests of children to be put “at the heart of family migration decisions” and insisted it is in the best interests of a child living in the UK to be surrounded by their family and to remain here.

They urged a simplification of family migration rules and said the process for bringing family members to the UK should be “straightforward, affordable, transparent and fair, with the rules applied as consistently as possible across different pathways”.

Funding to improve the standards of the services the Home Office delivers to families must be “significantly” increased, and caseworkers should be recruited and trained as an “essential yet insufficient starting point”, the committee said.

Migrants at immigration processing centre in Manston - in pictures

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  A person gestures through a fence at the immigration processing centre in Manston, Kent in southern England. Reuters

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  Security staff work to cover the view of people thought to be migrants in the Manston centre. PA

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  An aerial view of the facility in Manston. PA

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  Seven hundred people were moved to the centre for safety reasons after incendiary devices were thrown at a Border Force migrant centre in Dover on Sunday. Reuters

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  A man holds up a baby in the immigration processing centre. Reuters

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  A woman at the Manston centre. Reuters

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  A tent inside the processing centre. Reuters

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  The entrance to the Manston immigration holding facility. AP

In November, Home Secretary Suella Braverman was accused of being “out of her depth” and not understanding her own asylum policy after she conceded that many asylum seekers would need to first get to the UK to submit a claim.

Questioned by a member of the Commons Home Affairs Committee at the time, she struggled to explain how an orphaned African child fleeing war and religious persecution, who has a sibling living legally in the UK, would be able to make a claim from abroad, as they are not covered by any of the government’s specific schemes.

In their report, the Lords said Ms Braverman had, when questioned about child refugees not being able to be joined by any relatives, “defended this policy and showed no intention to better protect these vulnerable children”.

UK coastguard responds to migrant emergency in English Channel - in pictures

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  A life boat returns to the Port of Dover in England amid a rescue operation of a missing migrant boat. Reuters

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  Police and coastguard officers gather at Dover. People are feared to have died after a small boat carrying migrants got into difficulty in the English Channel. Reuters

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  Air Ambulance personnel arrive in Dover. EPA

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  Forensic tents at the lifeboat rescue station are set up at the port. AP

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  Ambulances at the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) station in Dover. PA

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  The RNLI station being readied to receive boats returning from the incident in the English Channel. PA

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  An ambulance arrives at the port. PA

The committee said the arrival of spouses and partners of British citizens was “deterred or delayed by the financial requirement and prohibitive application fees”, meaning parents in the meantime are forced to raise children alone.

They said current rules are “so harsh that they effectively ban families from being joined in the UK by adult relatives from overseas for whom they are desperate to care — often an elderly parent”.

The committee described the government’s approach as “unjustified and needlessly restrictive”.

“Nobody should have to choose between home, safety and family," said Baroness Hamwee, chairwoman of the House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee.

Nearly 700 migrants cross English Channel beating 2022 record - in pictures

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  A group of migrants are brought in to Ramsgate, Kent, on August 1 - the day on which almost 700 migrants crossed the Channel to the UK in a single day, a record for the year so far. PA

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  It is only the second time in 2022 that the daily figure has topped 600. PA

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  The latest crossings saw large groups of people, including young children, brought ashore in Ramsgate before leaving the Kent port on double-decker buses. PA

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  A woman carries a newborn baby in a life cradle as she is brought in to Dover, Kent, on a Border Force vessel in July. PA

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  About 3,683 migrants made the crossing on 90 boats in July, the highest monthly total this year. PA

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  A warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people trying to cross the Channel. More than 17,000 people have arrived in the UK from France in small boats such as dinghies so far in 2022. PA

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  Migrants hold up an inflatable boat before attempting to cross the Channel to Britain, near the northern French city of Gravelines, in July. AFP

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  A police officer stands guard on the beach at Dungeness, England, as migrants get off a lifeboat after they were picked up at sea in June. AFP

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  A group of people thought to be migrants walk up the beach after being brought in to Dungeness in May. AP

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  Migrants on the beach at Dungeness, after crossing the English Channel in an inflatable dinghy in January. Reuters

“The primary concern of family migration policies should be to allow families to live together in the UK where possible and the Home Office should ensure safe and legal routes for family reunion.

“The interests of families and society are not in competition: they go hand-in-hand. Family migration policies should ensure that they are sufficiently protective of family life.

“These restrictive rules and deficiencies affect British citizens, refugees and permanent residents alike. As one witness told us: ‘I feel that, although I am a British citizen, I have no rights’.

“We believe that it is in the best interests of a child living in this country to be surrounded by their family and to remain here.

“The scandal around the children placed in asylum hotels and going missing from them points up the importance of looking at immigration from the child’s point of view.

“Current policies are extreme. It is virtually impossible to be joined by an elderly parent who needs care. No visa was issued to anyone in that situation in 2021. Tight but fair immigration rules should allow families to live together.

“The minimum income requirement, which those trying to be joined by a partner must meet, is fundamentally flawed. It should be made more flexible and should not increase.

“Home Office processes must improve considerably, and standards of service substantially raised, without applicants left in the dark as to what is happening.”

Migrant children rescued in French waters - in pictures

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  Migrants are rescued by crew members of the 'Abeille Languedoc' ship after their boat's generator broke down in French waters as they were trying to cross the Channel illegally to Britain. All photos: AFP

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  Migrants wait for help in the Channel.

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  A child is rescued by crew members of the 'Abeille Languedoc'.

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  The 'Abeille Languedoc' is an ocean-going tug specialising in the rescue of vessels in distress.

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  Migrant children on the rescue boat.

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  The 'Abeille Languedoc' has been moored in Cherbourg for 26 years, monitoring the Channel between the Cotentin and the Pas-de-Calais.

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  Migrants sit on board the 'Abeille Languedoc' after being rescued.

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  A rescuer carries a child as they disembark from the 'Abeille Languedoc'.

Beth Gardiner-Smith, chief executive of Safe Passage International, said the committee’s report confirmed "how broken the current system is for refugees wishing to reunite with family”.

She described how unaccompanied refugee children the organisation works with were facing “many months of delays, stranded alone in camps and shelters, and then terrible decisions which totally ignore the vulnerable situations they are currently in” — resulting in many children “losing faith in the process” and risking a “dangerous journey” to reach their family in the UK.

“There are a number of family visa routes available for partners, spouses, children and adult dependent relatives of those already settled in the UK," a Home Office representative said.