QARN speaks out on Home Office plan
David Forbes, a member of QARN, has spoken out against plans to end family reunification for asylum-seeking children
A member of the Quaker Asylum Refugee Network (QARN) has spoken out about Home Office plans to end family reunification for asylum-seeking children in the event of a no-deal Brexit. According to reports, the government has privately briefed the UN refugee agency UNHCR and other NGOs that while ongoing cases may be able to continue, no new applications will be allowed after 1 November, if Britain exits the EU without a deal.
David Forbes, from QARN, described this as a ‘very sad, unreasonable and drastic approach to human rights’. The attender of Bull Street Meeting, who co-runs an immigration advice service, told the Friend: ‘Simply turning our back after forty-six years is very drastic when all welfare provision for refugees coming from the Meditterranean comes from collective agreements with the EU. It would probably condemn young people to be stuck in camps on the fringes of Europe.’
Campaigners and lawyers have also warned that the impact on migrant children stranded alone in Greece and Italy may mean more try to cross the Channel, or are vulnerable to trafficking, putting them at grave risk.
According to David Forbes, crucial EU laws for asylum seekers and refugees, such as the Dublin III regulation and the hard-fought Dubs amendment, will probably ‘be torn up’, which could face challenges from the European Court of Justice and cause a judicial review.
Jonathan Bartley, co-leader of the Green Party, who is a descendant of the Quaker prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, tweeted: ‘Refugee children are already dying because the Home Office has made it so hard to reach safety in the UK. If the government turned its back on family unification following a crash out Brexit, the consequences would undoubtedly be fatal. This must not happen.’
Comments
Please login to add a comment
