Thank you to all those who have emailed me about the Refugee Family Reunion Bill. I am not sure if you are aware that I have been working with UNICEF to commit the Government to extend the existing Dublin regulations re family reunion for asylum seeking children post Brexit which is essentially what Angus MacNeill’s Private Member’s Bill is trying to achieve.
I visited a refugee camp with UNICEF in Athens last year and wrote this article about my experience - https://www.timloughton.com/news/brexit-can-make-it-safer-and-easier-refugee-children-rejoin-their-families. Since then my colleague, Nicky Morgan, the former education secretary, and I submitted an amendment to the Brexit Bill to ensure child refugees have the same rights to be reunited with family members in the UK as they currently have under EU law – you can read more about the proposal here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/18/time-show-brexit-doesnt-mean-less-refugee-children/ - here is the link to the full Hansard of the speech I made at the time https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2017-12-12/debates/02642351-76CA-4700-BE34-28D22EB175B4/EuropeanUnion(Withdrawal)Bill#contribution-3D5F9DC8-2AA4-4727-A300-502FB23DD019
Essentially, I am asking for a wider range of relatives who would qualify for reunification than exists now and this is particularly relevant to Syrian children who have been separated from their immediate family escaping the civil war. Consequently the Government have agreed to look at this in more detail and with my colleague Nicky Morgan we have had several meetings with the Immigration Minister who is sympathetic.
We agreed during the passage of the Brexit Bill that the issue is more appropriately dealt with in the Immigration Bill which the Government has promised later this year and we will therefore be pushing the issue there.
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the debate on Friday as I had a full diary in the constituency and although the Bill passed its first hurdle it is unlikely to secure sufficient Parliamentary time to become law. That is why I will be pursuing this important issue through other means with the Government’s cooperation which I am optimistic will be more productive on achieving the result I think we both want.