UNHCR Protection Manual

These Guidelines set out relevant legal standards concerning family reunification for refugees and other beneficiaries of international protection, in accordance with international and regional refugee and human rights law. The Guidelines first outline the right to family life and the principle of family unity as they apply to refugees and other beneficiaries of international protection and explain the concepts of family and of family reunification. They then address procedural requirements that may constitute obstacles to family reunification for refugees and other beneficiaries of international protection, including specific challenges for family reunification for children. Finally, the Guidelines discuss other specific issues related to family reunification, including restrictions related to mode of arrival, access to courts and travel documents.

Laws, policies and practices penalizing people in need of international protection because of their unauthorized or irregular entry and presence and/or restricting their freedom of movement can breach Article 31 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Convention). The purpose of these Guidelines is to provide substantive guidance for interpreting and applying Article 31 of the 1951 Convention and to promote consistency in such interpretation and application among Contracting States of the 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees.

A review of State practice to provide international protection based on international and regional refugee and human rights law or to provide admission and stay based on migration law to persons displaced across borders in the context of disasters and adverse effects of climate change demonstrating growing consensus on the need to protect such persons through national and regional applications of these three areas of law, but indicating that the use of these tools is limited, often random, hard to predict, and neither harmonized nor well-coordinated.