Step forward for reuniting refugee families
Friends are encouraging MPs to support the Refugee (Family Reunion) Bill
Friends across the UK are encouraging MPs to support the Refugee (Family Reunion) Bill, which passed its Second Reading last week on 16 March.
The action comes as part of Quakers longstanding commitment to changing laws that push people from migrant and refugee communities into destitution, detention and deportation.
Jessica Metheringham, parliamentary engagement officer at Friends House in London, said: ‘People fleeing war or starvation should not be forced to choose between their family and their safety.
‘Refugees granted the right to stay in the UK should be able to sponsor family members to join them.’
The Refugee (Family Reunion) Bill proposes three changes that supporters say should make family reunion easier.
First, the definition of a family member would widen and include siblings. Second, the bill has no income or age limit, which means that unaccompanied child refugees can act as a sponsor for their parents. Third, the bill also reinstates legal aid for refugee cases of family reunion.
Comments
I am at present trying to reunite a Burundian man refugee with his wife and three children who are exiled in Rwanda. He is oding most of the work himself, but needs various expenses which he can not fund himself. One is £166 for his wife and children to ubdergo tubercular testing before they can get their visas. It would be good to have a source of borrowing so that the refugee can repay the moneey as and when able. My friend has already repaid one third of this sum, but struggles.
Barbara
By jagoads on 22nd March 2018 - 16:05
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