Photo credit: the Guardian
Hundreds of children are being trapped in war zones due to the United Kingdom’s refusal to ease refugee visa rules.
The Guardian reports that “impossible” bureaucratic requirements are constituting an obstacle to one of the few legal routes for asylum seekers.
Although the government has championed family reunion processes as a means for refugees to safely reunite with loved ones, according to a new report by Ramfel, a charity that supports vulnerable migrants, applicants have been abandoned because the scheme is not working. They are, therefore, left at the risk of trafficking or even death.
The charity revealed that when conflict broke out in Sudan in April 2023, it supported 14 people who qualified to go to the UK under the scheme. But over a year later, eight remained trapped there and were “facing extreme risks.” Many of them are children who had earlier fled Eritrea’s repressive dictatorship. Two other boys saw a loved one killed when their home was raided and looted in Sudan.
Some teenagers have now been able to flee Sudan on irregular routes. One boy has been obtained in Libya, and another unaccompanied child has been trafficked to South Sudan, where she was raped.
Only two of the children who were in Sudan when the conflict started got to the UK. The visa application centre in Khartoum has been closed, and the government has not agreed to waive the requirement that visa applicants register their fingerprints and biometrics in person.
