Home Secretary says local communities will be empowered to support the most vulnerable refugees through sponsorship
The Government has launched a new scheme to enable community and faith groups to sponsor Syrian refugee families who are being resettled in the UK, the Refugee Council reported.
Image credit: UK GovernmentAmber Rudd, the new Secretary of State for the Home Department, made the announcement in a written statement to the Commons today.
The statement said: "I am pleased to announce today details of how the Government will empower local communities to support the most vulnerable refugees through community sponsorship. This includes a 'Help Refugees in the UK' digital register of offers from the public, and a scheme for full community sponsorship.
"The 'Help Refugees in the UK' register, hosted on the gov.uk website, will make it easier for the public to support vulnerable refugees in the UK. Local authorities will be able to identify the goods and services that they require to support refugees, individuals will then be able to submit their offers, and the system will channel them to the areas where they are going to be used. 'Help Refugees in the UK' is being launched in nine pilot local authorities initially. (They are, Broxtowe, Cambridge, Cornwall, Coventry, Gateshead, Lambeth, City of Nottingham, Wiltshire, and City of York.) Offers of help made by members of the public in all non-pilot areas will be considered centrally by the Resettlement Programme Team before being passed on to local authorities. In Scotland, offers of support will be directed to the 'Scotland Welcomes Refugees' website through a link on the gov.uk website.
"The full community sponsorship scheme will enable community groups to take on the challenging but rewarding role of welcoming and supporting a refugee family in the UK. Full community sponsorship will commence on a small scale, and the resettled families will be among those referred by the UNHCR under the Syrian resettlement and vulnerable children's resettlement schemes."
Guidance on how to become a community sponsor and a form for applying is available here on GOV.UK.
The scheme will be primarily aimed at helping the 20,000 Syrian refugees being resettled here by 2020, but the Refugee Council says it hopes it will become a way for more refugees to come to the UK safely and legally in the future.
Refugee Council Chief Executive Maurice Wren welcomed the scheme, saying: "This scheme helps harness the eagerness and determination of the public to welcome refugees into their communities. Hopefully it can also become a way for more refugees of all nationalities to reach the UK safely and legally in the future.
"While this sponsorship scheme is welcome progress, it must be complemented by a much wider, compassionate and comprehensive response from the Government to addressing the global refugee crisis which prioritises giving more refugees safe passage here, particularly those who are desperate to join their loved ones."
The Guardian reported that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said today that a Syrian family is to be housed in an empty property in the grounds of Lambeth Palace.
Lambeth Palace is the first community group to be approved to receive a refugee family under the new scheme.
Archbishop Welby said it was an enormous privilege to welcome the family, adding that the scheme "presents churches and other civil society groups with the opportunity to provide sanctuary to those fleeing war-torn places."