What we know about refugee family reunion routes to the UKpublished at 11:30 British Summer Time
Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist
Later today I’ll be following Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s statement to Parliament where she is expected to announce that rules will be tightened for asylum seekers bringing family members to the UK.
Refugee family reunion is a legal pathway for close relatives of a person granted protection to join them in the UK.
Generally, only spouses, partners and children under the age of 18 can apply for this route and they are not given refugee status themselves.
The latest figures, external show that 20,817 family reunion visas were granted in the year ending June 2025. More than half of these were to children aged under 18.
The government says these proposed restrictions will bring the UK into line with other European countries. Earlier this year the German government voted to temporarily suspend family reunification for people with “subsidiary protection”, according to the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, external.
This type of protection applies to people who didn’t meet the criteria to be recognised as a refugee but who still face a risk of serious harm in their home country.
The German government said it took the decision because of the strain on cities and municipalities who have to support refugees and their family members.
This year Austria also announced a temporary suspension of family reunification, external, citing similar concerns about capacity.
