Member

This comes back to what I said on Tuesday, and what I say too regularly: we have to tackle root causes and, until we do, this problem will not go away. The Red Cross gives this example from Sudan. A two year-old Sudanese child, Ahmed, who was displaced in Chad due to the conflict in Sudan, was living with his grandmother and seven other younger children under her care. As Ahmed was under five, he was required to provide a facial photograph and passport check at the visa centre before his application could be processed. There was no visa centre in Chad, of course, and—to reinforce what my noble friend was saying—the nearest one was in Cameroon. The grandmother and child were unable to travel to Cameroon due to the dangers of travelling across borders and their inability to meet entry requirements. So the Red Cross made representations to the Home Office to consider Ahmed’s application without attendance at the visa centre. It agreed, as UNHCR was able to check the identity of the child and his passport. UNHCR also agreed to securely transport Ahmed’s passport back and forth to Cameroon to affix the visa into it. It took 11 months for the child to be reunited with his parents because of all the challenges outlined. The Red Cross argues that an amendment to this clause to include family reunion would have reduced the waiting time and would ensure that all families could get access to this application process without requiring interventions and legal support from its services. I hope we will take the opportunity, perhaps between now and Report, to see whether we can do that.