Children forcibly separated from parents at Christmas by Home Office
Children forcibly separated from parents at Christmas by Home Office
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‘Cruel’ minimum income rules put UK among ‘worst countries for family reunion’, say campaigners. Thousands of children are facing Christmas with one of their parents stranded abroad due to the Home Office’s restrictive visa policies, leading to charities calling the UK ‘one of the worst countries in the world for family reunion.’.
![[A couple photographed together at an airport]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/4a3b3b16c2bfb2ba8a82c932290c2f1648961a3b/0_272_608_364/master/608.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Under family immigration rules the UK-based spouse has to earn a minimum of £29,000 before an application can be made for a visa for the non-UK spouse to live here. The previous government planned to increase the minimum income threshold of £18,600 to £38,700 for these visas by the spring of 2025, but this is under review by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC). For the time being the increase has been pegged at £29,000.
The organisation Reunite Families UK has conducted research into the damaging impact of the minimum income requirement on children who they say are hidden victims of what they describe as ‘cruel immigration policies’ like this. They are submitting this research to the MAC.
Working with the children’s charity Coram, they analysed research from 745 families in this situation and have separately interviewed a small group of children. The research found that 67% of the separated families’ children got to see the parent forced to live abroad less than once a year, with 85% of these families saying that the minimum income requirement was a barrier to family reunion.
