'Completely Shattered' Hope Ruined for Families After Changes to Reunions

The hopes of asylum seekers aiming to be reunited with their loved ones in the UK have been shattered after the home secretary announced on Monday that new applications to the family reunion scheme were to be suspended.

- Diane Taylor

Immigration lawyers are frantically trying to get applications lodged before the opportunity closes. The suspension will last until the spring and it is likely any new scheme will be more restrictive than the current one, the Home Office said on Monday.

Ahmed (not his real name), an Afghan who worked as a bodyguard for the team of the deputy president when Hamid Karzai was president, fled to the UK to claim asylum after his country fell to the Taliban.