Yvette Cooper has announced plans to suspend all new applications under the refugee family reunion route as part of a series of measures to clear the asylum backlog and clamp down on the number of people crossing the Channel.
The changes mean that refugees will be covered by the same family migration rules and conditions as everyone else while a new, tougher framework for family reunions is drawn up.
Refugees will now have to apply through the standard family scheme, which applies to British citizens. This requires them to demonstrate a minimum joint income of £29,000 per year before their foreign partner can join them in the UK.
Giving a statement in the Commons on Monday, the first day back after a summer recess that was marred by growing public anger over migration, the home secretary said that a new independent body will be created to speed up asylum appeals, as well as announcing that the first returns of those who come to the UK on small boats will begin later this month under its deal with France.
More comprehensive reforms to family reunion will be outlined in an asylum statement later this year and implemented by spring, she said, arguing that people-smuggling gangs were using family reunion rules to promote illegal crossings to the UK.
But refugee charities condemned the changes, warning they would “push more desperate people into the arms of smugglers in an effort to reunite with loved ones”.
In the year to June 2025, there were 20,817 refugee family reunion visas issued. Over the past decade, 92 per cent of these were issued to women and children, who are family of refugees.
Steve Smith, CEO of Care4Calais, said: “We are forever hearing cries that refugees seeking protection should do so through official channels, but here we have the government restricting the last available safe route for women and children.
“Shutting off the hope of family reunification will only force more women and children to take dangerous journeys to seek sanctuary, including risking their lives by crossing the Channel.”
Meanwhile, Enver Solomon, CEO of Refugee Council, said: “Until now, family reunion has been one of the only safe and legal routes available that allows refugees fleeing war and persecution to be reunited with their partner and children.
“Far from stopping people taking dangerous journeys to cross the Channel, these changes will only push more desperate people into the arms of smugglers in an effort to reunite with loved ones.”
And the British Red Cross said suspending refugee family reunion applications would have a “devastating impact”, warning it could “separate families and cut off one of the only safe and managed routes for children to seek protection”.
“The vast majority of people who use family reunion visas are children and women – often trapped in very dangerous situations”, the organisation said.
Outlining her reasoning for making the changes, the home secretary argued that before the pandemic, newly granted refugees waited one or two years after their grant of protection to apply to bring their families over.
However, applications are now being made on average one month after refugee protection is granted, she said, adding that some refugees are making their applications while they are still in hotel accommodation – something that is putting pressure on the homelessness accommodation provided by local authorities.
Discontent with how the government has managed the small boats crisis and housed migrants in hotels has led to a wave of protests over the summer, and criticism from Labour’s political opponents.
It comes after the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, became the focal point of several demonstrations and counter-protests in recent weeks after an asylum seeker housed there was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl last month. He has denied the charges.
The home secretary said the government is reconfiguring sites, tightening the test for accommodation and working “at pace” to identify more appropriate accommodation, as well as working on clearing the backlog.
“I understand and agree with local councils and communities who want the asylum hotels in their communities closed, because we need to close all asylum hotels, and we need to do so for good, but that must be done in a controlled and orderly manner, and not through a return to the previous government’s chaos that led to the opening of hotels in the first place,” Ms Cooper told the Commons.
It comes after Sir Keir Starmer said he “completely” gets people’s concerns about migration, and insisted he wanted to speed up efforts to empty asylum hotels before the next election.
The government has committed to emptying all hotels currently housing migrants by the end of the parliament, which could be as late as 2029, but speaking to BBC 5 Live on Monday the prime minister suggested he wanted to “bring that forward”.
Ms Cooper also said the government would introduce changes to how article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – the right to family life – has been used during court cases to justify illegal migrants remaining in the UK.
There have been growing calls from a number of high-profile figures, including former Labour home secretaries Lord Blunkett and Jack Straw, for the government to rethink its relationship with the ECHR or quit the convention altogether.
But ministers have insisted the UK is committed to the ECHR, despite plans to change how it is implemented.
While Ms Cooper said the government’s proposed reforms will change the way that article eight is interpreted, she added: “We should be clear international law is important.
“It is because other countries know that we abide by it that we have been able to make these new agreements with France to return people who arrive on small boats, to make new agreements with Germany to stop the warehousing of small boats by criminal gangs and to explore return hubs partnerships with other European countries.
“But we also need the interpretation of international law to keep up with the realities and challenges of today’s world.”
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said “tweaking” rules would not be enough to tackle illegal migration.
“This is not just a border security crisis, it is a public safety crisis as well, and people up and down the country are furious. That is why they are protesting,” he told the Commons.
“If this government were serious about fixing this problem, they would know that little tweaks here and there are not enough.”
