REFUGEES living in Scotland whose families have been torn apart by war are struggling to rebuild their lives with “restrictive” family reunion rules forcing many relatives into life-threatening journeys to try to join them.

Around 4000 refugees have died trying to cross the English Channel this year. Others try to make it into the UK crammed into trucks – 39 were found dead in a lorry container in Essex in October. Many are fleeing conflict or persecution based on their politics, religion or sexuality.

Gary Christie, head of policy at the Scottish Refugee Council, told the Sunday National: “The UK Government must allow more refugee families to be reunited in the UK, without the need to make dangerous, often life-threatening journeys.

“Current family reunion rules are far too restrictive and force refugee families to live permanently apart. Even when a refugee falls within the rules to sponsor a family member the application is costly and bureaucratic.”

Without close family in Scotland, he said the worry left many struggling to rebuild their lives and think to the future.

Immigration lawyer Usman Aslam said the Home Office had not properly read their own rules and were applying the wrong legal test in family reunion applications, which did not require a fee.

He said: “We are speaking of families who have been torn apart by war ... living in unimaginable conditions in refugee camps, facing hunger, abuse and mental torment. Whilst we are making representations, so far successfully, we are hearing of various firms who are having family reunion applications turned away at the Visa Centre for using the ‘wrong application’.”

Aslam, from Rea Law in Glasgow, said the immigration rules “are already perverse”, only allowing refugees to be reunited with spouses and children under-18, but not permitting child refugees to be reunited with their parents.

He said: “However, in the Home Office’s own policies ... they have discretion on allowing other family members to be reunited, as long as they can show that they lived as a family unit previously.”

Some refugees here though are wary of attempting to seek a family reunion when they see charges of around £380 per application – money that few have to spare.

Millions of refugees have fled since the powder keg of Syria blew up in 2011 – 1.8 million are in Jordan, 1.5m in Lebanon and others scattered almost everywhere in between.

The Sunday National has spoken to two who came to Scotland under the United Nations resettlement scheme.

Ashwaq Alkhatib and her husband Wasim Zoubani have one child, Ameer and live in Glasgow. She has been here for three years and wants to bring her parents and siblings to Scotland from Jordan, where discrimination forced them to leave a refugee camp.

She said: “They are struggling in Jordan and we are struggling here because we can’t do anything to help them. If they came over here I could work and they would look after my child and we would support each other that way.

“My brother is only 18 and was working to support the family. A couple of weeks ago outside the flat they were living in he had to stop work after an incident right outside where someone slashed a little boy’s throat in front of other people.

“My parents and brother witnessed what happened and they are all scared to leave the flat. My two little sisters are living in the house and can’t go to school and there’s nothing we can do to help them.

“The Home Office fees are £380 per person. We don’t have that kind of money to risk losing if they reject the application.”

Dalal Mohamed al Akari lives with her husband and two children near Glasgow and fled Syria to Lebanon, but her sisters and her husband’s extended family are still there.

Visibly upset, she said through an interpreter: “Life in Lebanon is so difficult, they don’t have any support from anywhere. They have no houses, no heating because they are living in tents ... Racism is getting worse and they’re scared to go out of their tents because local residents tell them to go back home, but they have no home to go to.”

She said it was also difficult for her young daughter here: “When my daughter goes to school the other children talk about their relatives and my daughter comes to me and asks, ‘why do we not have grandmother or grandfather, or aunties and uncles to go and see?’

“And I don’t know how to answer her, because we had to separate after we fled Syria and they haven’t met my children.”

Aslam added: “Scotland welcomes refugees, but we need to do more so that refugees who never asked to be separated from their families in the first place, deserve to be with them without constant barriers being in place.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Our family reunion policy provides a safe and legal route to bring families together free of charge. In the year ending June 2020, the Government issued 6320 refugee family reunion visas and more than 29,000 in the last five years.

“We are fixing our broken asylum system to make it firm and fair. We will stop abuse of the system while ensuring it is compassionate towards those who need our help, welcoming people through safe and legal routes.”