All Parliamentary Group

4 February 2025: The APPG on Refugees have today released the attached report following an inquiry into safe and legal routes.

The report has been endorsed by 16 members of the APPG from both Houses and most of the main parties. Taking evidence from experts, refugees and international best practice, the report recommends:

Improving refugee family reunion by:

Delivering the Home Office’s Service Standard of processing family reunion cases in 60 days
Amending the Immigration Rules to allow refugee children in the UK to sponsor their close family to join them
Removing financial restrictions on UK-based sponsors so children outside the UK can join their close family here

Restoring the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS) as the primary resettlement route to the UK and fix issues with existing nationality specific schemes:

Commit to a multi-year pledge for the UK Resettlement Scheme, returning to at least the pre-COVID commitment of 5,000 refugees resettled annually
Reaffirm the Government’s commitment to resettle 20,000 Afghans under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme and ensure family reunion access for those arriving

Introducing a Pilot Refugee Visa Scheme by the end of this Parliament:

The APPG proposes the UK Government consult on the workings of a refugee visa targeted at high grant rate countries such as Sudan and Eritrea. This should be capped to issue no more than 10,000 visas during the period of the pilot.
At the same time, whilst the Pilot is running, the Government should consult with European partners to explore the potential for the visa to be a European wide initiative based on the learnings from the UK pilot in the same way that the Ukraine scheme was an EU wide initiative.

We hope this will inform debates on the recently released Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill. APPG Co-Chair Lord Alf Dubs has a piece in the Mirror explaining the report findings.

The Refugee Council is building cross-party consensus for a compassionate and controlled asylum system.

We work with politicians from across the political spectrum and provide regular briefings on legislation and UK Government policy.

One of the main ways we engage with the Parliamentary system is by providing the secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Refugees.

The APPG on Refugees

The group is chaired by Laura Kyrke Smith MP (Labour) with Lord Alf Dubs (Labour) as Co-Chair. Baroness Philippa Stroud (Conservative) and Zoe Franklin MP (Liberal Democrat) are the other two elected Officers of the group.

The group’s mission is to provide a forum for the discussion of issues relating to refugees and to provide recommendations to UK Government on improving the asylum system and the welfare of refugees.

The APPG on Refugees holds regular meetings in Parliament; this has recently included two panel events in May 2024 as part of an inquiry into safe routes.

Officers
Role	Name	Party
Chair & Registered Contact	Kevin Bonavia	Labour
Co-Chair	Lord Dubs	Labour
Officer	Zöe Franklin	Liberal Democrat
Officer	Baroness Stroud	Conservative