Family Is the Foundation: Strengthening Access to Family Reunification for Refugees

RefugePoint has been working for years to help more refugees reunite with separated family members and to reduce barriers that stand in the way. We are supporting refugees to access family reunification pathways at three levels:

• By directly providing family reunification services to families like Samira and Omer
• By partnering with and building up other organizations doing similar work
• By working with states to create policies that make family reunification easier to access.

We recently partnered with external evaluators to measure our impact on these fronts and are pleased to present this Impact Brief on Family Reunification, which validates RefugePoint’s role in expanding access to family reunification through refugee-centered approaches, cross-sector collaboration, and efforts to address systemic barriers.

Restoring Family Unity, Stability, and Dignity

Kezia was 16 years old, and her brother Chris* was just 12 when a series of devastating events tore their family apart. Their older sister, Grace*, fled their home after facing persecution in their home country. Soon after, unknown individuals abducted their mother, leaving the two siblings to fend for themselves.

Months later, after learning that her siblings were still alive, Grace, who had been resettled and was living in Europe, began searching for ways to reunite and bring them to safety. A friend referred her to RefugePoint, and our team began the process that eventually helped to reunite the family.

Their story highlights a powerful but often overlooked reality: family reunification is not only about restoring family unity, but also about rebuilding safe, stable and dignified lives.

“Family is the foundation. Without family reunification, integration is very hard. Separation affects children and parents deeply. When families are apart, people struggle with their mental health and cannot fully settle or participate in society.” -Yordi Lassooy-Tekle, Migration Inc.²

Yet for many refugees, family reunification remains difficult to access, shaped by complex systems and persistent barriers. Refugees often face restrictive eligibility criteria, excessive documentation requirements, lengthy processing times, and significant financial costs within existing immigration systems, making it difficult for many families to reunite safely.

RefugePoint’s Commitment to Family Reunification

RefugePoint and its partners are working to strengthen family reunification as a viable and scalable pathway to safety for refugees. Through coordinated efforts, we are addressing systemic barriers and expanding access, helping more refugees safely reunite with their families.

This includes developing refugee-centered pathways and coordinating with governments and legal partners to help refugees navigate complex reunification processes.

A notable example is the Central Mediterranean Situation (CMS) pilot, a three-year initiative launched in 2019 to strengthen family reunification for vulnerable refugee children and youth in Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, and Sudan who had parents or close relatives residing in Europe or North America. RefugePoint played a central role in conceptualizing and implementing the pilot in partnership with the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) and UNHCR. Through the initiative, RefugePoint deployed technical experts across multiple countries to proactively identify eligible children, provide case management and protection support, navigate complex administrative and legal barriers, and coordinate with legal service providers and government actors throughout the reunification process. Lessons from the pilot informed UNHCR’s family reunification guidelines, helping to codify effective practices and strengthen broader global efforts to expand access to family reunification for refugees.

How We’re Driving Large-Scale Change

At RefugePoint, we work simultaneously on direct services, field building, and systems change to transform the refugee response system.

Providing direct support to refugees seeking to reunite with family members

Alongside its systems-level work, RefugePoint provides direct support to refugees navigating family reunification pathways. Through case management, coordination with legal partners, and engagement with authorities in both departure and destination countries, RefugePoint helps families overcome the many barriers that stand between them and reunification.

To date, RefugePoint has supported over 2,000 refugees directly through family reunification casework, enabling many families to reunite safely after years of separation.

For refugees, Family reunification improves mental well-being, strengthens social integration, and provides a foundation for rebuilding their lives with dignity.

Related: Watch the emotional moment when a mother and son reunited in Canada after 7 years of separation.

Advancing collaboration and field building for family reunification

RefugePoint has also played a central role in advancing global collaboration on family reunification through the Global Family Reunification Network (FRUN). As the Secretariat of the FRUN, RefugePoint provides coordination, operational support, and strategic leadership, bringing together governments, UN agencies, civil society organizations, Red Cross societies, refugee-led organizations and the private sector to strengthen collaboration and advance access to family reunification for refugees.

Through the FRUN, network members coordinate on legal and practical support for refugee families, and dialogue with States on the importance of flexible policy approaches to ensure eligible refugees can meaningfully access family reunification.

Through this network, RefugePoint has helped create a platform for collective problem-solving and action.

Within FRUN, systems-change and field-building efforts have included engagement with refugee-led organizations and collaboration through inter-agency platforms and civil society partnerships. These efforts have strengthened coordination among actors, elevated refugee voices, and contributed to more inclusive and responsive approaches to family reunification.

At the 2023 Global Refugee Forum (GRF), RefugePoint and partners pledged to advance this work through the Multi-Stakeholder Pledge (MSP) Supporting Refugee Family Reunification, which aims to support at least one million refugees to reunite with their families by 2030. RefugePoint, together with DLA Piper (global law firm) and Migration Inc. (refugee-led organization), co-leads the work under the pledge in the area of practical and legal support for family reunification.

Multiplying our impact through systems change

We aim to multiply our impact by changing the systems that shape refugee responses. We conceptualize systems change as shifting the factors that limit refugee response systems from serving refugees adequately and equitably, including policies, practices, resources, relationships, power dynamics, and mindsets (beliefs and ideologies).

Through RefugePoint’s Transforming Refugee Response series, we highlight examples of how this change happens in practice. An externally led, participatory evaluation explored RefugePoint’s contribution to systems change through interviews with partners, colleagues, and stakeholders, participatory sense-making with staff, and review of key documents. The evaluation examined what has changed, why change was needed, how change occurred, RefugePoint’s unique role, and the relevance of these changes for refugees.

One key area of change is strengthening access to family reunification as a durable solution. As highlighted in Transforming Refugee Response series (Vol. 10), improving pathways for family reunification helps address gaps in refugee response systems by enabling separated families to reconnect and rebuild safe, stable, and dignified lives. Chris and Kezia’s story reflects this broader reality: for refugees separated from loved ones, family reunification is a legal pathway toward restoring family unity and supporting long-term well-being.

What Still Needs to Change

Despite progress, significant legal, policy, and administrative barriers continue to limit access to family reunification. Addressing these gaps requires stronger and more coordinated action across multiple actors.

• Strong state leadership is needed to operationalize commitments, toward sustained implementation, resourcing, and accountability. This includes taking concrete steps to make family reunification more accessible to refugee families such as simplifying procedures around eligibility and documentation.
• Legal actors and civil society organizations can help bridge gaps by expanding access to legal and administrative support, including pro bono and affordable services, so that refugees are better able to navigate complex processes.
• Finally, greater partnership and collaboration among stakeholders across the family reunification ecosystem–including governments, international organizations, and networks–is essential to streamline pathways, share learning, and expand access at scale.

Family reunification is a humanitarian imperative. It is also a practical and scalable solution that strengthens protection, supports integration, and enables refugees to rebuild their lives with dignity. To learn more about how RefugePoint is advancing family reunification, read the Transforming Refugee Response Series Vol 10.

¹Client names changed to protect confidentiality
²Migration Inc is a partner organization of RefugePoint and an active member of the Global Family Reunification Network (FRUN)

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