Divided family

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A divided family is a close family unit or people of the wider family who are separated from each other by borders of one or more countries and are therefore temporarily or permanently not able to live together. The reasons for the separation is usually political conflict or family members are given citizenships of different countries. For example, the division of the Korean peninsula and the division of Germany through the inner German border divided families through political conflicts. Both cases were caused by a rearrangement of national boundaries.

However, families can also be divided if national boundaries remain unchanged, but instead groups of people or individuals are moved, forced to leave or flee. Forced displacement such as flight from persecution, violence or a severe lack of public order can be causes of divided families. For example, over 100,000 unaccompanied minors applied for asylum in other countries in 2015.^[1] Other examples are population transfer, third country resettlement and deportation. Many countries offer programmes for family reunification that allows divided families to live together again.