Councils have ‘no clue’ how many Ukrainian refugees are in UK says MP
MP Matt Western has slammed the government’s Homes for Ukraine and says the scheme is “failing” refugees fleeing the violence in their homeland. The Labour MP for Warwick and Leamington says there are systemic problems with the programme and that he was left in the dark when attempting to find out how many Ukrainian refugees had been resettled in the area. More than five million people are said to have fled Ukraine since Russian troops invaded at the end of February.
Yet little more than 1,200 refugees are understood to have been resettled in the UK as part of a scheme blasted as being “deliberately difficult to navigate”. More than 200,000 Britons have registered as sponsors able to take in refugees since the scheme was launched five weeks ago. Mr Western claims he was told by Warwickshire County Council that the number of refugees assigned to sponsors in his constituency is not systematically provided to local authorities.
:Watch time-lapse footage as 60-tonne railway bridge is installed in Leamington The communication breakdown is thought to stem in part from the fact sponsors and refugees make their own arrangements with regards to travel to the UK once a visa has been approved. Mr Western’s office has been assisting more than a dozen families seeking help with their applications to the scheme.
He says he is aware of a handful of refugees being granted ‘permission to travel’ letters and expects them to make it to the constituency in the coming days if they haven’t already. But, he claims he’s been unable to receive a straight answer when asking the most basic of questions to the relevant authorities. Mr Western said: “Surely the council or the Home Office can provide these important figures for our area – especially given the safeguarding fears expressed by the UN.
The fact no one can confirm the arrival of a single Ukrainian refugee in the district is extremely worrying – and shows what a failure this has been from the Home Office in particular. “The nation, people in our county and my constituents have shown incredible generosity in volunteering to provide a home for increasingly desperate Ukrainian refugees. Unfortunately, the Home Office has failed them but – most importantly – it has failed refugees.
Again.
Matt Western, Labour MP for Warwick and Leamington (Image: Matt Western’s office)
“Little more than 1,200 refugees have been resettled under the scheme. All the while more than 30,000 further refugees are waiting, sometimes as long as three weeks, for their applications for visas to be processed. “Ireland – with a population roughly 13 times smaller than ours – has already successfully resettled 20,000 refugees.
My wife and I have also applied for the scheme and have experienced delays and frustration just as others have.” The county council said they are contacting hosts when refugees arrive to “undertake checks” including accommodation, safeguarding and welfare. Politicians and the press have been highly critical of the government’s resettlement schemes which have been plagued with delays and complications, prompting an apology from
Home Secretary Priti Patel recently apologised “with frustration” over the time it is taking for Ukrainian refugees to arrive in the UK under visa schemes. Louise Fellows and her family have been attempting to bring Ukrainian brother and sister Vadym Nosov and Kateryna Nosava safely to their home in Warwick under the Homes for Ukraine programme.
Home Secretary Priti Patel speaking to the media (Image: Yui Mok/PA)
“It’s a horrendous system, against all decency and compassion,” she said. “It seems the government has created a system that is deliberately difficult to navigate. We applied on March 23 and have still not had the visas approved, despite having biometric passports and birth certificates for Kateryna and Vadym.”
About 25,000 visas have so far been issued under the scheme out of more than 55,000 applications, latest figures showed. As of April 20, 371 visas had been granted to Ukrainian refugees seeking resettlement in Warwickshire as part of Homes for Ukraine scheme . According to the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 91 refugees had arrived.
Fifty-one were said to have taken up residence in south Warwickshire, 27 in Rugby Borough and 13 in North Warwickshire and Nuneaton and Bedworth. A county council spokesperson said: “The picture is changing daily, and we expect the numbers to increase. As you can imagine, guest arrivals are sometimes unpredictable given the difficulties faced with travel, administration and practical arrangements.
“When they do arrive, the county council and partners are contacting hosts and guests to undertake checks including the appropriate accommodation, safeguarding and welfare checks.”
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