UNHCR starts screening of refugees entitled to family reunion

Refugees at Mae La Refugee camp on the Thai Burma border with relatives resettled I third countries are about to be screened by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Thailand to see if they are eligible to be resettled.

It is estimated that there are as many as 52,000 people living at the Mae La refugee camp that is located in the Tha Song Yang District of Thailand’s Tak Province. Many refugees have family member who have been resettled to a third country. Read more

Red Cross Report on Family Reunion

Report on the importance of family reunion services and provision in the UK.

Read the full report here

"Family important for wider societal wellbeing and separation can affect integration
– UNHCR resettlement handbook: “[Family separation] may
also create serious obstacles to a refugee’s integration in a
new country, and the realization of family unity is considered
an important aspect of all durable solutions”."

Refugee Week: Family Reunion

A Family Reunion

P and her family are recognised refugees in the UK. P instructed Brighton Housing Trust to assist  her in making an application for her mother who had a serious eye condition to join the family in the UK.... Read more here

http://andywinterbht.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/refugee-week-family-reunion/

Hungarian refugee waits 56 years to see his family after fleeing to the United States

Though they were apart for 56 years, Molnar and his family quickly made up for lost time...

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/the_intelligencer_news/a-family-reunion-years-in-the-making/article_7b81c890-3693-5935-ae30-2610fe726528.html

Read the full Red Cross report online here

http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4f9fcc602.html

Thankyou very much to the Interact Club at the Heathcote School in Hertfordshire for the £178.62 they raised through having a non uniform day and a bake sale.

Red Cross report on family reunion

Last year we were interviewed for some research the Red Cross was doing and they have now completed the report with their findings.

Some of the key issues were found to be that refugees struggled to get information or support with applying for family reunion. That funding the documentation needed as well as the travel for successful applicants meant that people would go without food to save up or had been borrowing from people who subsequently threatened their family when they couldn't pay.

I wouldn't have been able to pay. I had no place to sleep, nothing to eat so I could not pay the bill of a solicitor.... The people in a refugee situation, they cannot afford to pay a lawyer's bill.

You can read our summary of the report on our website here and we hope to be able to bring you a copy of the full report. Our thanks to the Red Cross for allowing us to reproduce their findings.