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When Omar Hayi got the news home office When he was granted sanctuary in Britain, he was overjoyed.
Caseworkers agreed that the 28-year-old had a “reasonable fear of persecution” and couldn’t come back for your home country EthiopiaWhere he said he was jailed for supporting the opposition party, the Oromo Liberation Front.
This decision meant that his future in Britain would be stable for at least the next five years. But, more importantly for Omar, it also means a promise of safety for his wife Habiba and two-year-old son Kenna, who he believes will now be allowed to come to Britain under a government scheme to bring families together.
“If I bring them here, I will be able to protect them. If I can save my life, but cannot protect theirs, why should I live?” He says.
Yet, just hours after receiving the good news, Umer’s hope that he would one day be reunited with his loved ones was dashed.
The day he received refugee status, September 4, was also the last day refugees Can apply to bring closer to you Family Members moved to the UK after a dramatic change in policy by Labour.
Eager to begin the process of bringing his wife and son to the UK as soon as possible, Omar obtained a lawyer’s phone number through an Ethiopian friend and called him at 3.13pm. But what they didn’t know was that the scheme had been closed for new applications just 13 minutes earlier, at 3 pm.
The then Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had announced a ban on new applications in Parliament. three days ago. Ms Cooper claimed people smuggling gangs were using family reunification rules to encourage illegal crossings into the UK. Charities condemned the decision, saying that it was, in fact, Push people into the hands of smugglers.
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The pause on the family reunification scheme is expected to last until spring 2026, when new requirements for refugees are expected to be announced. Meanwhile, people settled in the UK can sponsor their family members to come here, but only if they meet the minimum salary threshold of £29,000 per year and if they can pay thousands in application fees.
Omar arrived in the UK on a small boat in May 2025. He graduated from university in Ethiopia with a degree in computer science and speaks English fluently, but has struggled to find work in the field since receiving refugee status. He is now doing a cyber security course in Norwich so that he has the appropriate UK qualifications that will help him get a job.
Sadly, Omar never got to meet his two-year-old son in person. “A week before my son was born, I was arrested by the government and put in jail,” he says.
“I was supporting the opposition party and had participated in several protests. The authorities arrested me and imprisoned me for one year and four months without trial.
“I managed to escape after my family bribed my release, but I had to leave the country immediately without seeing my wife or son. That was in November 2024, and it took me almost six months to reach the UK.”
Omar was able to talk to his wife again for the first time in April this year, when she borrowed the phone while he was in Italy.
He says, “Since my arrest, she had to change homes several times. She was running from one place to another, and the militias were harassing our family. I wanted to do anything to get them out of that country and when I reached the UK, I was explained that if I applied for asylum I could bring them here.”
“The officer who interviewed me on my first day in the UK explained that I could apply for them. So the day I received refugee status, I called the lawyer to apply.
“He explained to me that this [the reunion scheme] She had stopped and couldn’t do anything for me.”
He further said that he was ‘heartbroken’.
“I haven’t even seen my son in person, we can only do a video call. If I can’t save him, if I can’t protect him, what do I have?
“We just want the opportunity to save our lives and not be isolated.”
Omar speaks to his wife and son regularly, but due to security reasons he has to wait for them to call him. Their son Kenna loves playing and listening to music when they are on video calls together.
Umer explains that Kena likes it when he sings Oromo music. He says, “He asks me to sing and he’ll dance. He just keeps telling me to sing again, sing again.”
“Then when he’s playing with other little boys, he asks my wife to get the phone and he tells them, ‘This is my dad.’
“Every time he asks me to come, ‘Why don’t you come?’”, recalls Omar.
Nick Beals of Ramphal, the refugee charity supporting Omar, says: “Labour’s decision to suspend refugee family reunification is not only cruel, but counterproductive.
“Keir Starmer and Shabana Mahmood cannot, on the one hand, say that they want refugees to take safe routes and then, on the other hand, remove one of the few safe routes that exist. They cannot insist that refugees immediately establish themselves in their new communities, while also ensuring that their partners and children remain stranded abroad.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Recognizing the pressures placed on local authorities and public services, we have recently taken the step to suspend the refugee family reunification route.
“We understand the devastating circumstances some families face, which is why there remain other avenues for individuals to be eligible to apply for reunification with family.”