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<p>The Government provides safe and legal routes to bring families together through
its family reunion policy. This allows a partner and children under 18 of those granted
protection in the UK to join them here, if they formed part of the family unit before
the sponsor fled their country.</p><p>Our current policy does not allow child refugees
to sponsor their parents. The Government’s view is that if children could sponsor
parents, it would risk creating incentives for more children to be encouraged, or
even forced, to leave their family and risk hazardous journeys to the UK. This plays
into the hands of criminal gangs who exploit vulnerable people and goes against our
safeguarding responsibilities.</p><p>Our policy is not designed to keep child refugees
apart from their parents, but in considering any policy we must think carefully about
the wider impact to avoid putting more people unnecessarily into harm’s way.</p>
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