A migrant couple want to be given UK asylum after their two young children crossed the Channel on a small boat by themselves.
Fleeing their home country, the family of Kurdish Turks travelled to Calais and booked their spots on a dinghy to make the perilous journey to Britain.
The two young siblings, six and nine, were on the small boat when their mother was dragged into the sea by other refugees.
To help their mother, the father leapt into the sea but the dinghy was already making its way for British shores.
To help their mother, the father leapt into the sea – by which time, the boat had already left for Britain (Stock)
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The couple’s lawyers are now trying to reunite the parents with their children in Britain – claiming that the Government must act accordingly to the individual’s right to a family life under the European Convention for Human Rights (ECHR).
They have also argued that the separation from the children is in breach of another right under the ECHR which bans torture, inhuman treatment and degrading punishment, The Telegraph reports.
They have claimed that evidence has indicated “that the children have already been seriously harmed and every passing day carries with it an increasing risk of long-term damage to the children’s physical and psychological health and development”.
The Home Office has fought back the claims, arguing that making the allowance would set a dangerous precedent which might lead to people-smugglers exploiting the system by dividing up families making the journey.
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“The risk in northern France [is] that the grant of entry clearance will incentivise traffickers and people-smuggling gangs to manipulate families and separate children from their parents, sometimes forcibly, to make an unsafe journey to the UK placing their lives at risk,” legal documents have revealed.
“The real risk is that allowing parents to enter the UK because their children arrived in the UK unaccompanied on a small boat will lead to more children being placed on small boats, unaccompanied.”
The papers have also indicated that “high-level talks” amongst the Home Office, Foreign Office, the authorities of the Pas de Calais, as well as French interior minister Bruno Retailleau.
A Court of Appeal was informed that the couple had not “actively and urgently” co-operated with local authorities to be reunited with the children at the earliest possible date, while the Home Office accused the parents’ lawyers of trying to “game the system” by refusing to claim asylum in France.
Immigration judges have not ordered that the parents be allowed into Britain.
The migrants’ case was scheduled to be heard by a British family court this week.
Chris Philp suggested that the children should be reunited wherever the parents are in France or a neighbouring country
PA
During a ruling at the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Underhill deemed there to be “a reasonable prospect of reunification in France being achievable within the time frame of the family proceedings”.
“That being so, it would be wrong to undermine the process now by requiring the [Home Office] to admit the parents,” the judge added.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “These children should be reunited with their parents, by sending them to wherever their parents are – presumably in France or a neighbouring country.
“We cannot allow parents to put their children into a dangerous small boat to then use those children to facilitate their own entry into the UK, which would otherwise be illegal.
“If that is allowed, then it will create a powerful incentive for people to send children here illegally so that they can later follow.”