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The Home Office’s controversial decision to suspend the right of refugees to bring their children and partners to the UK is to face a legal challenge in the high court, the Guardian can disclose.
Safe Passage International, a charity working with unaccompanied children and refugees, has been granted permission to launch a judicial review of the decision to halt refugee family reunion after it claimed the suspension was unlawful.
Mr Justice Fordham accepted that the suspension should be open to a legal challenge after the court heard that “the decision breaches the Home Office’s duty to have regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children”.
The Home Office was also accused of failing properly to consider the consequences of its decision, and a possible breach of the Equality Act by not taking into account the effect on women, children, and refugees with disabilities.
A Home Office spokesperson disputed the charity’s claim that the court accepted all three grounds of challenge, saying that those grounds would be heard at a full hearing of the court.
It comes as Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, prepares to implement further policies placing more restrictions on asylum seekers who hope to settle in the UK, as Labour struggles to fight off the challenge of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.
In September, Yvette Cooper, the then home secretary, announced an immediate suspension of the refugee family reunion pathway that had allowed children to join parents and partners. The decision provoked an outcry from some Labour figures, including the Kindertransport peer Alf Dubs.
Until then, an adult who was granted refugee status could sponsor their spouse or partner and dependent children under the age of 18 to join them. Children have no family reunion rights.
Between October 2024 and September 2025, the Home Office issued 20,876 refugee family reunion visas. More than half were to children, while 37% were issued to women, the Refugee Council said.
At the time of the suspension, the Home Office said it would last until “spring 2026”, when it planned to introduce new restrictions that could include new income thresholds and English-language tests.
Jo Cobley, the chief executive of Safe Passage International, said: “We are working with families suffering from depression, anxiety and even suicidal thoughts, as they deal with the psychological impact of surviving war and human rights abuses. The impact of families being separated in the chaos of fleeing, cannot be underestimated.
“The government is abandoning the UK’s duties to protect refugee children. We are fighting against the suspension, as we fear more children and families will turn to smugglers, with yet another safe route closed down, and risk their lives to reach their loved ones.”
Safe Passage’s claim that the suspension was unlawful was lodged with the courts on 28 November, and permission was granted on 19 February. The case is expected to be heard later this year.
Crucially, the now-suspended refugee family reunion pathway had no application fees, and less stringent requirements.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Under this government’s reforms to create a fairer asylum system, family reunion will no longer be automatic. Those seeking to bring family members to the UK will need to meet stricter criteria.
“Those with protection status can still use other family routes to sponsor a partner and child to come to the UK.”
The remaining family members pathway, intended for family members of British citizens and settled migrants, costs £5,043 for an adult applicant and £4,266 for a child. Under those rules, sponsors of family members have to earn at least £29,000 a year, or meet the threshold with savings alone, unless “exceptional circumstances” can be shown. Safe Passage says meeting these financial requirements is nearly impossible for refugees in the UK, given asylum seekers are banned from working.
Dubs, who came to the UK at the age of six in 1939 fleeing the persecution of Jews in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, told the Guardian Mahmood was “pulling up the drawbridge once inside” in not fully considering the plight of refugee children trapped abroad.
Mahmood has defended sweeping changes to the UK’s asylum system, telling MPs the current situation was “out of control and unfair”. Speaking in the Commons in November, she said: “If we fail to deal with this crisis, we will draw more people down a path that starts with anger and ends in hatred.”
Under the plans, refugee status will become temporary, guaranteed housing support for asylum seekers will end, and new capped “safe and legal routes” into the UK will be created.
