What needs to change Families come in all shapes and sizes – This is a complex process where the so eligibility criteria should be sponsor is a refugee – legal support more flexible should be provided In addition to a more flexible response to complex Refugee family reunion was taken out of legal aid cases – such as de-facto adoption – the overall scope because it was considered a straightforward eligibility criteria for family reunion in the UK immigration matter that does not warrant the need immigration rules should be widened. for specialist legal support. However, our evidence demonstrates that many refugee family reunion cases are complex and often require the flexibility, That should include: expertise and experience of legal advisors to deal with them. > young people over-18 being able to reunite with parents they were living with at the time of flight5 For example, our report, Not so straightforward, found that 33 per cent of 91 refugee family reunion > child refugees in the UK being able to sponsor cases relied on witness statements and statutory their parents and child refugees outside of Europe declarations produced by legal advisors and able to reunite with more family members a quarter featured an interview or documentation discrepancy. > other people who were part of the family unit pre- flight, utilising evidence of what the UNHCR has Many family members, primarily women and called ‘strong and continuous social, emotional or children, are living in precarious situations abroad economic dependency between family members’. and are exposed to security risks. These risks include abduction, arrest or imprisonment, domestic violence, forced recruitment and violence. In this The Dublin III Regulation should be used proactively regard, refugee family reunion is more closely by the UK and other member states to facilitate aligned with asylum, which remains in scope, than family reunion. In addition to speeding up routes to immigration. Faced by these dangers and unable protection for eligible unaccompanied minors and to exercise their rights to family reunion through separated spouses, the discretionary clauses of existing formal processes, family members are more Dublin should be utilised to allow for families with likely to embark on dangerous and illegal routes to young children in camps to reunite with other adult reach the UK. family members. This would speed-up the process of relocation within Europe, which is currently not functioning. Not having the cash should not be a barrier to protection for refugee families 5. When referring to ‘young people’ we mean children up to the age of 25 who were living with their parents at the time they were forced to flee their home country. Both UK legislation and international definitions consider ‘young people’ to include those up to the age of 24-25. This is the definition used for former looked-after children in the Children Act 1989 and the Children and Young Persons Act 2008. Further, the UN also defines ‘youth’ as 15-24-year-olds. 17