Red Cross flies refugees' families to Britain

Telegraph

21 hours ago

The British Red Cross is paying for hundreds of families to come to the UK to be reunited with migrants granted asylum, despite growing concerns over housing shortages.
The charity locates, advises and funds the travel costs of up to 1,000 family members a year to come from abroad to join people who have been granted refugee status.
They are a portion of the record 20,000 family visas granted to children and wives or partners of refugees to join them in Britain.
Home Office figures show the overall number of successful applications for family visas has increased five-fold in three years, from 4,310 in the year to March 2023 to 20,592 in the year to this March.
Migrants granted asylum or refugee status in the UK can sponsor family members to come to the UK, with charities like the Red Cross providing advice and funds to help them.
Immigration rules mean that, unlike with other visas, family members coming to the UK are not required to demonstrate that they have the necessary accommodation or income to be able to live in the UK without claiming universal credit or housing benefits. There is also no requirement that they have to speak English.
Council officials have expressed concern that the growing numbers of asylum seekers and their families securing refugee status in the UK are placing unsustainable burdens on local housing.
Following The Telegraph's investigation, Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, signalled a shake-up in family reunions, which is likely to include new conditions and restrictions on refugees seeking to bring their families to the UK.
It is understood ministers are considering following other European states that bar migrants granted asylum from applying to reunite with their families until they have spent a number of years in the country. At present, they can apply as soon as they are granted asylum.
Ms Cooper told The Telegraph that the family reunion system Labour inherited from the Tories was 'broken'.
She said the entire family immigration system – including migrants' use of human rights laws – was being reviewed, with changes expected to be announced later this year.
'That also includes looking at increasing responsibilities for people to support their families, increasing English language requirements, and examining changes in this area that other countries have brought in,' she said.
Backlog
The increase in family reunion visas has been fuelled by the Government's efforts to speed up the processing of asylum applications to clear the backlog and move asylum seekers out of hotels.
Once granted asylum, they can work and have 28 days to vacate their taxpayer-funded hotel or other accommodation.
This has, however, had a knock-on effect for councils, which have to house the successful applicants.
'Asylum and resettlement affects all councils' capacity to source temporary accommodation given wider housing system pressures,' said the Local Government Association (LGA), which represents the 317 councils in England.
With a record 114,116 asylum seekers' applications granted in the past two years, the LGA urged ministers to 'jointly manage' with councils their speeded-up processing of asylum claims to 'prevent homelessness pressures and a cost shunt to councils'.
One council official who handles homeless families told The Telegraph that migrants who brought their families over could no longer live in single accommodation, and after eviction would turn to the council to rehouse them.
The official said they alone dealt with up to two families a month flown in by the Red Cross or other agencies.
'The Red Cross go and locate their families under the law that they have a right to a family life, pay for them to fly over and they end up dumped on the local authority doorstep,' said the officer.
'Half, or rather 99 per cent, of the time the refugees don't work, speak English, or have any intentions of working.'
The official said the families often comprised four to six children, which meant they had to be put up in hotels or private rented accommodation at taxpayers' expense until a large enough property could be found – a process that could take years.
'If we can find temporary accommodation houses we will find them, but they are absolutely rammed. There is no space in any of them,' the official said.
'Everyone is going mad about illegal migrants, but an illegal migrant is one person. By the time the Red Cross is finished with them, it is a family.
'I don't think your average member of the public realises what the donations are going to, because it is causing this complete [housing] chaos.'
The Red Cross said that last year it covered the travel costs of 288 families reuniting with refugees in the UK. They comprised 959 people, of whom 702 were children. The charity said the numbers had been stable over the past few years.
Nearly half (46.4 per cent) of the Red Cross's money comes from donations and legacies, with a further 37.9 per cent from charitable activities.
Of the £238 million it spent last year, an eighth (12.1 per cent) was spent on 'displacement and migration'.
Its website states: 'Do you have family members with family reunion visas living overseas? We may be able to arrange and pay for your family's flights to join you in the UK.'
However, it warns that it gets 'many requests' and has 'limited funding'.
Its 68-page guide to family reunion states that families will have to prove pre-existing relationships with documents and potentially DNA tests but do not need to 'pay an application fee, meet any financial or accommodation requirement [or]...any English language requirements.'
It says that families deemed ineligible could seek to appeal under article eight rights to a family life under the European Convention on Human Rights by claiming they had 'exceptional' or 'compelling and compassionate grounds.'
Advice and integration support
Ellie Shepherd, the British Red Cross head of refugee support, said the organisation had a 'proud history' of supporting family reunion.
'Our support ranges from tracing family members who may have lost contact in conflict zones, to advice and integration support,' she added.
'We've worked with mothers who have been separated from their babies, husbands who haven't seen their wives for years, and children desperate to reunite with their siblings. The majority of cases we support are to reunite children with parents.
'We know from our experience that bringing families back together makes an immense difference to people's lives. It helps people better integrate into communities and contribute to society – some people speak about it being the moment their lives truly restart.
'Family reunion visas are also one of the few safe and legal ways to help bring people – mostly women and children – from danger to safety.'
The Red Cross said it also 'worked hard' to notify local councils of family reunions.