Expanding Safe Pathways to Sanctuary: Refugee Family Reunion
More than 100 million people are forcibly displaced worldwide. Due to the UK’s restrictive policies and difficulty accessing legal representation, many are unable to access safe and legal pathways such as Refugee Family Reunification (RFR).
This project will improve the experiences of family members seeking sanctuary by developing an interdisciplinary clinical casework model and providing refugee families with better legal representation, specifically looking at RFR.
Research will critique the legal aspect of the issue, including understanding how to expand safe routes for RFR and improve the use of DNA evidence in RFR decision making, to suggest how to make the system better, fairer and more compassionate. The project will also provide education for law and forensic students on how to better support the safe reunification of refugee families.
"We are delighted to be recipients of the One King’s Impact Fund and the opportunity to work collaboratively across disciplines, alongside external partners and with King’s students, to practically and sustainably improve the experience of refugee families seeking sanctuary to the UK through legal representation, research, policy, and education", said the project team.
Partners and Collaborators
A network of multidisciplinary partners from across and beyond King's are working together to maximise the impact of the project.
Find out more about the project partners:
- DNA analysis at King's
- King's Legal Clinic
- King's Sanctuary Programme
- Dickson Poon School of Law
- King's Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine
- King's Sanctuary Scholars
- Refugee Legal Support
- Civil society stakeholders and UK policymakers
The project team also includes Unysah Kazi Nabi (Research Administrator), Sarah Tierney (Sanctuary Operations Manager) and Dr Jonathan Birtwell (Sanctuary Hub Postdoctoral Research Associate).
Impact
The anticipated impact of this project includes:
- Expanding access to free and more comprehensive legal representation to families who face complex RFR cases.
- Offering DNA testing assistance and support to families as part of improving DNA evidence and interpretation to support RFR cases
- Developing a sustainable and innovative model of interdisciplinary experiential learning, which will enhance critical thinking and problem-solving skills amongst King’s students, that could also be replicated at other universities.
- Accelerating research outputs supporting policy change to make RFR pathways more accessible and broader.
- Developing stakeholders’ understanding of the breadth of issues impacting RFR and enable strategic focus on core issues most likely to enable positive change.
This project is supported by the One King’s Impact Fund.
The One King's Impact Fund is part of One King’s Impact, King’s strategic programme to support and accelerate work within and beyond the University which creates positive change for people, planet and society.
Expanding Safe Pathways to Sanctuary: Refugee Family Reunion responds to the following Impact Priority:
Principal Investigators
Director of Clinical Legal Education & Supervising Solicitor
Business Engagement & Communications Manager
Reader in International Politics
Affiliations
Funding
Funding Body: One King’s Impact Fund
Amount: £69,158.58
Period: August 2024 - August 2025