‘The Forgotten Human Impact of Yvette Cooper’s Cruel Anti-Refugee Policies’

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Yvette Cooper on Monday announced that the Government was suspending all refugee family reunion to the UK. This is a shameful decision that will have devastating consequences for the affected families and will do nothing to placate politicians like Nigel Farage, and the racists terrorising asylum hotels.

Contrary to Cooper’s claims, UK family reunion rules are already extremely restrictive. Refugee sponsors can bring children or pre-flight spouses and no other family members can apply. This is simply not fit for purpose when assessing family dynamics for those fleeing conflict zones. Children are often orphaned in such settings, with older siblings taking on de facto parental responsibility. UK family reunion rules do not reflect this reality, and rather than closing down the scheme, any sensible government, focused on preventing dangerous journeys, would expand the scope of family reunion.

The limited scope of family reunion though is just one problem. Those in conflict zones usually cannot even submit applications. This is because they must attend a Visa Application Centre, and no such centres exist in Gaza, Sudan, Eritrea or Afghanistan. The last Conservative Government’s position was that lone children should take dangerous cross-border journeys to neighbouring countries and attend visa centres. Depressingly, Labour is failing these children just as catastrophically.

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Cooper justified suspending family reunion by arguing that refugees should wait longer before reuniting with loved ones, as this would allow them to find jobs and housing. Cooper herself is a parent and a partner. If she relocated to a third country, does she really think she would feel settled and able to flourish if her partner and children were living thousands of miles away. If she does, let’s rephrase the question: does she really think she’d be able to flourish if her partner and children were living thousands of miles away in a warzone and every night she lay awake worrying whether they’d survive until the morning? 

Cooper’s Government is now waging a sustained campaign attacking asylum rights as they attempt to ward off the electoral threat from Reform. They’ve already banned refugees making irregular journeys to the UK from ever securing British citizenship. In July, they closed the Afghan resettlement schemes, one of the few safe routes to the UK. Last week, they reduced the move-on period for newly recognised refugees leaving asylum accommodation from 56 to 28 days. All of these moves are regressive, cruel and bound to fail on their own terms, preventing refugees from fully integrating into society, encouraging unsafe journeys and increasing refugee homelessness.

Nigel Farage has made clear he is happy returning refugees to face torture, death and execution. This was a chilling proposal from an elected politician, a clear violation of the absolute prohibition of torture and a repudiation of any sense of moral decency. Keir Starmer’s response has also been pathetically weak. He didn’t condemn Farage’s support of torture, he just said Farage’s plan wouldn’t work.

Both main political parties are now trying to fight Reform on their territory, with a race to the bottom to propose ever more extreme and cruel immigration policies. Some of Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp’s language has been truly dehumanising in recent weeks, as he and the Conservatives more desperately seek air time and attention.

Labour and the Conservatives cannot out-Reform, Reform. When either party proposes something more extreme, Reform will simply raise the stakes. And what we’re left with now are asylum policies and proposals devoid of any humanity and compassion, with it no longer even clear that the UK opposes the use of torture.

Forgotten Human

Starmer, Cooper, Philp and Farage want you to forget that their rhetoric and their cruel policies affect human beings. They affect families. They destroy lives.

Ahead of Monday’s announcement, we were due to submit a family reunion application for a high profile political opponent from a west African country. The Government granted him refugee status earlier this year. He was desperately excited to finally apply for his wife and one-year old child to finally join him here. Being separated from his family is preventing him from fully focusing on life in the UK, and he’s yet to find work. Yvette Cooper’s callous announcement slammed the door shut on this child reuniting with her father.

We also spoke with another person struggling to bring her family here. Due to the restrictive scope of the family reunion rules, she’s spent nearly three years battling the Government to reunite with her family, who are in hiding from the Taliban. In July, the courts ruled in her favour. On Monday, we had to break the news to her that Starmer’s government was appealing this decision to the higher courts. She almost had a panic attack when we told her and in her own words: “it’s so tiring to keep fighting, I can’t do it anymore.”

The Government’s own analysis shows that family ties and a lack of safe routes are what drive refugees to take dangerous journeys to the UK. Whilst in opposition, Yvette Cooper herself recognised this, advocating for a strong family reunion system to stop people falling into the hands of traffickers. To see how far her position has shifted is truly disturbing, and she and Keir Starmer need to ask themselves whether they really want to lead a country that panders to its worst nativist instincts at the expense of those most in need.