LONDON

The UK government on Monday said it is temporarily suspending applications for refugees seeking to bring family members to the country, as it prepares new, tighter rules for family reunions.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told British Parliament that the current rules “were designed many years ago to help families separated by war, conflict and persecution, but the way they are now being used has changed.”

She explained that even before the pandemic, refugees typically applied to bring family members over “on average more than one or two years after they had been granted protection – long enough for them to be able to get jobs or find housing (so they would be) able to provide their family with some support.”

By contrast, in the UK, applications are now being submitted “around a month after protection has been granted – often even before a newly granted refugee has left asylum accommodation,” she added.

Cooper said this is creating pressure on local services.

“As a consequence, refugee families who arrive are far more likely to be seeking homelessness assistance, and some councils are finding that more than a quarter of their family homelessness applications are linked to refugee family reunion.”

She added that current rules are not as strict for refugee sponsors as they are for British sponsors. “That is not fair,” she said.

Cooper also raised concerns about small boat crossings, saying the proportion of migrants who arrive by this route and then apply to bring family “has also increased sharply in recent years, with signs that smuggler gangs are now able to use the promise of family reunion to promote dangerous journeys to the UK.”

She stressed that the government still sees family reunions as important. “So family groups will be prioritized under the returns deal with France,” she said.

She added that an asylum policy statement later this year will set out new family reunion rules, “including looking at contribution requirements, longer periods before newly granted refugees can apply and dedicated controlled arrangements for unaccompanied children and for those fleeing persecution who have family in the UK.”

In the meantime, she said: “We are bringing forward new immigration rules to temporarily suspend applications under the refugee family reunion route.”

Cooper said she hopes some of the new rules will be in place by the spring.

The remarks came after anti-immigrant protesters in west London attempted to enter hotels accommodating asylum seekers on Saturday.

London Police have arrested five people during the protests outside the hotel on Stockley Road.