asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether the voluntary assisted return and reintegration programme or the assisted voluntary return of irregular migrants schemes allow for a British citizen child to be repatriated together with his parents who have no legal basis of stay in the United Kingdom and wish to be repatriated voluntarily overseas; and, if not, how such a family can apply to be voluntarily repatriated to their home country together with their British citizen child. [HL4370]

Section 58 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 states that British citizens cannot be classed as voluntary leavers. This means that British citizens are not eligible to make a return through any voluntary return schemes including the assisted voluntary return (AVR) schemes operated by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) on behalf of the Border and Immigration Agency.

In the circumstances outlined in the Question, the parents may be eligible to return through an assisted voluntary return, such as the voluntary assisted return and reintegration programme (VARRP) and the assisted voluntary return for irregular migrants (AVRIM), but the child could not. It is possible that arrangements could be made for them to return together on the same flight but the programme would not pay for the child’s return.