I Welcome campaign - Keep refugee families together

Current government rules separate child refugees in the UK from their families overseas, should they ever be located. Children are the only refugees in our system, recognised to be this country’s responsibility yet denied the right to sponsor family members to join them in the UK.

This permanently separates extremely vulnerable children from their families as neither their parents nor their siblings are ever permitted to join them here. This puts child refugees’ safety and well-being at risk.

Being reunited with close family is a way to ensure the welfare and safety of child refugees in the UK and would improve their chances of integration and recovery.

The UK can and must do more to share responsibility for the global refugee crisis. Expanding family reunion to child refugees would make a huge difference to the lives of hundreds of children who have had to flee the horrors of persecution and conflict.

As part of the I Welcome campaign, Amnesty is calling on the UK Government to expand opportunities for more refugees to come to the UK through safe and legal routes, including through extending family reunion to child refugees.



Right now, the Home Office and the Department for Education are running a consultation on safeguarding unaccompanied children in the UK. This is a real opportunity to make this an issue for the government and tell them to stop separating refugee families.

For more on the consultation go here: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/safeguarding-unaccompanied-asylu…



Take Action:



1.    Use the joint letter below and write to the Home Office and Department for Education calling on them to allow children recognised as refugees in the UK the right to be reunited with their families. Please sign the letter and send them to Amnesty International UK office and we will deliver all of the letters together along with our submission to the consultation. Please send your signed letters by Friday 17 March



2.    Get as many people as possible to sign the petition below to the Home Office and Department for Education. This will show that this is an issue which many people across the country care about. Please send your petition sheets by Friday 17 March