The Home Office is to carry out a review of the rules that allow immigrants to bring their families into the UK, it has been confirmed.
The review, to be announced by Home Secretary Theresa May in the coming week, is part of a wider overhaul of the immigration system with the aim of hitting David Cameron's target of getting net inward migration down to the tens of thousands.
As part of the exercise, officials will look at how the UK system interacts with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees "the right to a family life".
The Sunday Telegraph reported that a woman who fled war-torn Burundi as an asylum-seeker and was given "indefinite leave to remain" in the UK after her files were lost by the Home Office has now won permission to bring her three children to the country under Article 8.
However, the Home Office said it did not believe that the case of Peace Musabi - whose immigration status would not normally grant her the right to bring dependants into the country - formed a precedent which would open the doors to other claims. A second similar case is currently being considered by a judge.
A Home Office spokesman said: "We don't think these cases set any precedent. Article 8 does not give an absolute right to remain here. We will continue to remove those who break the rules and try to play the system.
"We are going to consult on the family route shortly and look at what requirements we should place on foreign nationals who wish to establish a family life in the UK. This is part of a package of reforms we are putting in place to manage migration."