Britain suspends refugees’ family reunion applications to toughen rules

LONDON (Reuters): Britain said on Monday it would suspend applications from registered refugees to bring family members into the country in order to give the government time to toughen the rules, its latest attempt to cut the number of arrivals.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government is under mounting pressure to reduce the number of asylum seekers reaching Britain from France in small boats, after hotels housing migrants became a focal point for weeks of sometimes violent demonstrations.

Interior minister Yvette Cooper told parliament that more and more refugees had applied to bring in family members, placing pressure on housing across the country.

Many were applying to bring over families within about a month whereas, as recently as 2019, they were waiting one or two years or more.

Cooper said she would suspend the system while the government looked to toughen the rules.

“The system has to be controlled and managed based on fair and properly enforced rules, not chaos and exploitation driven by criminal smuggler gangs,” she said.

Accused of moving too slowly, the government says it is tackling a problem left by previous Conservative-led administrations by trying to speed up the processing of asylum claims and brokering return deals with other nations.

But the public discontent has handed Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party a consistent lead in opinion polls, prompting the government to go further.

Under the current system, an asylum seeker granted indefinite leave to remain can bring their partner if they can prove they have been in a relationship for at least two years, and children under the age of 18.

Just over 29,000 people have come to Britain unofficially on small boats so far this year, up 38 percent on the comparable period in 2024.