Last week we brought together voices from across health, care, education, research, unions, legal experts, civil servants working in the Home Office to examine the Government’s proposed settlement reforms. Today, we’re releasing the final briefing. 🧵 reunitefamiliesuk.co.uk/wp-content/u...

Grateful to our members Felix & Tessa for speaking to @theguardian.com on their worried around Earned Settlement. As Felix said: “At work, when colleagues talk about starting families, you’re reminded your ambitions are on a wire.” 🧵 www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

EARNED SETTLEMENT We must be a country that is true to our word, and we must be a Labour Party that stands up for the values of community, solidarity, equality and internationalism. youtu.be/ec6LL7McYG4

Yesterday afternoon RFUK hosted a multi-sector roundtable in parliament yesterday about the earned settlement proposals. We had an impressive panel of experts from @ippr.org, @unison.org.uk, @ucu.org.uk, @pcsunion.bsky.social, @rcn.org.uk, @jdportes.bsky.social, and Fragomen law firm

Amid the distress caused by the settlement changes, the Government has quietly announced yet another visa fee hike. Leave to remain is rising to £1,407. An initial visa now costs over £2,000 — plus £1,000+ yearly paid upfront for the health surcharge. 🧵

Our team recently presented our project findings at Parliament! Thank you to the MPs, Embassy and Consulate staff, professional organisations and our advisory board for attending. A special thanks to @rfuk.bsky.social and @the3million.bsky.social for responding to our research at the event!

Yesterday 100s of people from across the UK came together in Parliament to meet with their MPs about the Govt.'s disastrous earned settlement plans. Together, we shared our concerns directly with 80+ MPs. A massive thank you to everyone who joined & helped make it happen. This is just the start.

A 6-year-old cancer survivor at Great Ormond Street Hospital could lose vital care due to the Government’s “earned settlement” changes. The Home Office reduces lives to numbers, ignoring health and safety. MPs must stop these cruel, dehumanising reforms. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Today we and our members are joining the mass lobby against the Government’s “earned settlement” proposals with dozens of organisations and hundreds of people from across the UK. The plans make settlement longer, costlier and more insecure MPs must listen and stop these classist, racist proposals

Excited for @praxisprojects.bsky.social mass lobby in Westminster today! We’ve got over 600 people signed up to say no to the settlement changes. Let’s convince some MPs not to ruin this country 👍🏽

The findings in @brexitcouples.bsky.social's report to which we and our members contributed are yet another unequivocal indictment of the UK's spouse visa rules The Government must implement its recommendations. Love across borders should be cherished not punished. www.bbc.com/news/article...

🚨 The Home Secretary confirmed today that refugee protection will now be temporary and reviewed repeatedly. This is not just a bureaucratic change it’s deeply damaging and counterproductive for people fleeing war and persecution. In this short 🧵 we'll explain why we oppose these changes

Reunite Families UK is proud to have provided witness evidence in support of the legal challenge against the UK government’s decision to halt the refugee family reunion route — a dedicated pathway helping refugees bring close family to the UK for safety. @duncanlewiss.bsky.social 🧵

📢 Reunite Families UK has submitted our response to the Earned Settlement consultation. These proposals could fundamentally change how migrant families secure long-term stability in the UK — and the risks are serious. 🧵 reunitefamiliesuk.co.uk/wp-content/u...

Proud to have signed this letter signed by 70+ MPs and tens of NGOs that like us know that as a result of these harsh proposals lives will be impacted and ruined. We urge the Government to rethink these plans - everybody in our communities deserve to thrive. www.bbc.com/news/article...

It’s #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek 💛 — and we’re centring the voices that are often overlooked: children growing up under the UK spouse/partner visa rules. These impacts were laid bare in the @wearecoram.bsky.social Centre for Impact research commissioned by Reunite Families UK. 🧵

Only 24 hours left for people to fill in the consultation on the "Earned Settlement" proposals. Join other 130k people and make your voices heard. Settlement should be a right for everyone not a privilege for few high earners. ukhomeoffice.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

It’s #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek 💛 Children need safety, stability and love to thrive. But for many children in migrant families, life is shaped by fear and uncertainty: Will my parent be allowed to stay? Will we be separated? Will we have a home? A brief 🧵

According to @ippr.org over 300,000 children will be put on a longer 10-year route to settlement due to the reforms being discussed. Children and their families must not be placed on routes that have been repeatedly found to cause financial and mental hardship www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

The Govt admits it doesn’t know how many NHS staff will be impacted by settlement changes. What does that mean for NHS waiting times, care for elderly, and patient safety? Pushing ahead without considering the impacts on healthcare is a betrayal to us all. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

🚨 Only 🔟 days before the "Earned Settlement" consultation on new rules for settlement (Indefinite Leave to Remain) in the UK — closes on 12 February 2026. The consultation matters because once these rules are written into law, they could shape settlement for a generation so have your say now ! 🧵

Shocking and yet unsurprising that the latest @jrf-uk.bsky.social UK Poverty found that 1 in 2 children in migrant families were in poverty compared to around 1 in 4 other children. Children are the biggest victims of an extortionate immigration system. No child should grow up knowing poverty.

Nothing shows the cruelty of the Home Office bureaucracy more than this story: a Palestinian academic was denied reunion with his family in the UK they ruled it wasn’t urgent and that his two children should remain with their mother in a tent in Gaza during war. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

As we read the headlines around the Migration Advisory Committee's analysis of the fiscal contribution of joining family members we're deeply concerned by attempts to reduce people’s worth to their fiscal contribution.

Today should be a day to celebrate Human Rights our #OurEverydayRights. Instead, we’re left reflecting on the countless ways those rights are being attacked, undermined and dismissed by our Government, our political class and much of our media.

Great to hear Rachel Reeves acknowledge that "there are many reasons why people choose to have children then find themselves in difficult times. The death of a partner. Separation. Ill health. A lost job. I don’t believe that children should bear the brunt of that." So why should migrant children?

We have made an animation, to show how the 'No Recourse to Public Funds' immigration condition, has harmed our families: www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4x3... Please write to your MP using our pre-filled letter template, to ask them to call for an end to #NRPF: ✍️✉️ win.newmode.net/project17/wi...

We agree with Sam. Scrapping the MIR is the only way to ensure British citizens and settled residents can live with the people they love. It won’t shift net migration, but it will finally reunite thousands of families kept apart by these rules. No ifs, no buts — Families Belong Together

🚨The latest Home Office stats show that 5000+ children risked their lives across the Channel last year to reach safety & family here. More than half alone. This will only get worse as the govt continues its attack on family reunion, one of the last few safe routes to the UK.

Stealing refugees' jewellery won't make anyone's life better. Deporting children won't make anyone's life better. Making people wait 20 years to settle won't make anyone's life better. If Government chooses hostility over helping communities, more division and racism are the only possible results.

esmeefairbairn.org.uk/latest-news/... @migrantsorganise.bsky.social @rfuk.bsky.social @jcwi-uk.bsky.social @evawuk.bsky.social @lawrsuk.bsky.social

The "safe and legal routes", the sop to allow Labour MPs to convince themselves that there's a smidgen of morality here, are to cover "a few hundred people"

Shabana Mahmood confirmed in the House of Commons yesterday that the new safe and legal routes in the asylum policy statement would be only "in the low hundreds". This is at the same time that refugee family reunion is paused, and will be significantly restricted www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Lord Dubs of Battersea is quite right. The proposed immigration changes are needlessly cruel and will do little to make our immigration system more humane, workable, safe or responsible. I strongly encourage the Govt to look again at proposals. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

We couldn't agree more with what Stephen writes in this column. Starmer’s govt has wrecked race relations. Border policy failure doesn’t excuse racism—ever. To suggest otherwise is cynical, corrosive, and indefensible.

We are in despair after the Home Secretary’s announcement yesterday. As an organisation helping couples and families survive the immigration system, we struggle to accept plans that make it easier to deport families and children. #FamiliesBelongTogether

I'm reading through the white paper or whatever it is. RESTORING ORDER AND CONTROL: A statement on the government’s asylum and returns policy www.gov.uk/government/p...

We are in despair after the Home Secretary’s announcement yesterday. As an organisation helping couples and families survive the immigration system, we struggle to accept plans that make it easier to deport families and children. #FamiliesBelongTogether

Our lived experience and work with spouse-visa applicants show how exclusionary and often racist the immigration system is. We worry the Government’s harsher tone reflects global right-wing pressure and emboldened far-right ideas rooted in racial hierarchy. www.bbc.com/news/article...

The Prime Minister said in September that we are at a fork in the road. These asylum proposals suggest we have taken the wrong turning. The idea that recognised refugees need to be deported is wrong. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Our lived experience and work with spouse-visa applicants show how exclusionary and often racist the immigration system is. We worry the Government’s harsher tone reflects global right-wing pressure and emboldened far-right ideas rooted in racial hierarchy. www.bbc.com/news/article...

The UK already has some of the harshest family migration rules—and now it’s reportedly looking at Denmark, ranked the worst in the world. How is this fighting the far right, it’s appeasing them. Our families deserve dignity, not scapegoating. www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11...

This joint statement has been signed by over 60 organisations — united in calling for compassion, fairness, and justice. We call on the government to reverse this heartless decision and reinstate the right to family reunion. ✊🏽 #FamiliesBelongTogether #RefugeesWelcome #EndHostileEnvironment

This joint statement coordinated by @rfuk.bsky.social and @jcwi-uk.bsky.social has been signed by over 60 organisations. We call on the government to reverse this heartless decision and reinstate the right to family reunion. ✊🏽 #FamiliesBelongTogether reunitefamiliesuk.co.uk/over-60-orgs...

The government has shut down refugee family reunion — turning in effect a “temporary pause” into a permanent ban. Cruel. Heartless. Inhumane. 🧵 reunitefamiliesuk.co.uk/over-60-orgs...

It is harrowing to see the Home Office once again preventing families from being safely reunited in the UK. No child — from Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan or any other war zone should be left to face horrific violence alone because of a bureaucracy blind to their suffering www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Reunite Families strongly reject Katie Lam’s toxic, dangerous rhetoric on deporting long-settled families. This isn’t “policy” — it’s cruelty echoing the racism history warned us against. We’ll keep fighting for compassion justice, and the right to call the UK home 🔗 www.thetimes.com/article/6e05...

Really worrying findings from @helenbamber.bsky.social on the suspension of the refugee family reunion route: ➡️ Families pushed towards smugglers ➡️ Children + partners left in danger ➡️ One of the few safe routes to the UK is closing #FamiliesBelongTogether 🔗 www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Katie Lam has made a video - focusing on not giving new ILR grants to people who don't have it But quietly including the Conservative proposal to be the first government since Idi Amin in 1972 to revoke the permanent leave to remain, then expel: she underplays to what extent x.com/Katie_Lam_MP...

Please spare 30 seconds to nominate @rfuk.bsky.social via the link to a pre-completed form, for RFUK to have a chance of winning a £1,000 donation from the Benefact Group. movementforgood.com/index.php?cn...