Comprehensive British Red Cross report examines the experiences of refugee families reuniting in the UK

A new report published earlier this month by the British Red Cross takes a comprehensive look at the organisation's Family Reunion Integration Service (FRIS) programme, which provides support and assistance for refugee families who are reuniting in the UK.

The 76-page report,Together at last: Supporting refugee families who reunite in the UK, can be downloaded here.

The British Red Cross launched FRIS in January 2019 together with Barnardo's and Queen Margaret University. It covers all four countries of the UK and is part-funded by the European Union's Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF).

The programme was launched to address a lack of formal support for reuniting refugee families in the UK. FRIS helps families secure housing, navigate the welfare system, register with health services and get children into school.

In its new report, the British Red Cross sets out the findings from three years of the FRIS programme, drawing on data and testimony from the over 1,100 families who have been supported. It details the lived experiences of refugee families reuniting in the UK and highlights the key challenges they face, as well as identifying the key measures that would improve their prospects for successfully integrating in their new home.

Across separate sections, the report examines the families' arrival in the UK and their subsequent struggles accessing housing, work, health, and education.

The British Red Cross summed up the report's key findings as follows:

• There was a lack of pre-arrival support and information, which often meant that families did not know what to expect when they arrived in the UK.
• As a result of statutory processes only starting when the family is reunited in the UK, many reunited refugee families faced destitution when the arriving family joined the sponsor in the UK.
• Reunited refugee families experienced common barriers to accessing key services.
• On arrival, the majority of reunited families struggled to access suitable accommodation.
• In cases where local authorities started their housing duties prior to family members arriving, the time spent in unsuitable housing was significantly reduced.
• When reunited families did not have children, they rarely met the priority need requirements in England and were often forced to sofa-surf and faced risks of becoming street homeless.
• Ten per cent of refugee sponsors supported by FRIS were in paid employment when their family arrived.
• Where a sponsor was in receipt of Universal Credit when their family arrived, their claim was cancelled, and any payments stopped.
• On average families had been in the UK for 61 days – nearly nine weeks – before they received their first Universal Credit payment.
• Families needed support to apply for and interact with Universal Credit.
• On average it took almost 12 weeks after arrival to receive Child Benefit.
• Arriving spouses (of which 84 per cent were women) were financially dependent on their refugee sponsor.
• On average it took 31 days after families arrived in the UK to register with a GP.
• There was a lack of interpreters for GP appointments. Half of the families interviewed said they used their partner as an interpreter.
• Families faced long waiting times for access to mental health support after arrival.
• Children supported by FRIS generally started school between two weeks and four and a half months after arriving in the UK.
• Families often needed support to navigate the school admissions process as it is complex, and applications tended to be in English only.
• Delays in children getting into school not only negatively impacted their integration but also their parents' integration.

The British Red Cross said: "None of the challenges reunited refugee families face highlighted in this report are deliberate. Instead, they are unintended consequences of policies and practices that have not been designed with them in mind."

The report makes a number of recommendations, based on the best practice that was developed through the FRIS programme, which the British Red Cross says would improve the experiences of refugee families reunited in the UK and their prospects for successful integration.