Members of the public will be asked to offer their homes to refugees from other countries including Afghanistan under plans being considered by ministers after the “overwhelming” response to the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
More than 150,000 people have offered to take in a Ukrainian refugee since the government launched the scheme on Monday.
Government insiders said they expected this to outstrip the number of Ukrainians who want to come to the UK but do not want to waste the offers.
Ministers want to use the scheme to try to resettle other refugees, which could include thousands of Afghans still living in hotels seven months after they were evacuated from Kabul after Britain’s withdrawal. A minister said: “We’re considering it.”
Another senior government source said: “It’s a good idea and I think it will happen because the number of people offering will outstrip the number of people who want to come to the UK.”
Advertisement
Priti Patel, the home secretary, is considering creating a permanent community sponsorship scheme similar to the Ukraine model to fulfil her commitment for new “safe and legal” routes as part of her overhaul of asylum laws.
About 12,000 Afghan refugees are living in hotels, costing the government £1.5 million per day. Most of them were evacuated with their families as they were in danger of reprisals from the Taliban because they had worked for the British, including many translators.
The Home Office has struggled to persuade local authorities to offer permanent homes for them, with only 3,000 resettled. However, ministers are concerned that transferring Afghans into people’s homes temporarily would cause even more disruption for them.
A minister said: “Whilst it could be a good model, it may not be relevant for many Afghan families because they have already been disrupted once so ideally we don’t want to put them into temporary accommodation twice.”
The minister said the Homes for Ukraine scheme would be used as a model to resettle refugees from future conflicts. “Unfortunately history is what it is and these problems do come up. It seems a very sensible way of doing it.”
Advertisement
Another obstacle to using the scheme for Afghan refugees is that they tend to be from large families, with an average size of 6.7 people. Policymakers fear that many of those who have offered their homes to Ukrainians would not have the space for large families.
Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, an integration think tank, said those offering their second homes may be more appropriate to house Afghan refugees.
He said: “We may have too many offers in the short term. It would be tragic if this welcoming self-mobilising movement across Europe led to people never matching with a Ukrainian and then never hearing what more they could do to help . . . second homes might be more relevant for large families.
“This isn’t just about who has a spare room . . . There will be lots of Ukrainian women with children who will want to work so will need help with childcare.”
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said using offers from the Homes for Ukraine scheme would not be appropriate for Afghan families but said a “national hosting scheme” should be pursued as a wider strategy to resettle refugees in the UK.
Advertisement
David Goodhart, head of the demography, immigration and integration unit at Policy Exchange, said: “Understandably, our attention at present is wholly taken up with the awful events in Ukraine. But despite that, we mustn’t forget that there are other folk too who need our help – those who have fled Afghanistan, and are of course as deserving of finding more permanent and comfortable accommodation than the temporary hotels they have been lodged in.
“The response this week to the scheme to host refugees from Ukraine has shown there is a section of the public who can be mobilised to help and some of them are likely to want to help others who need it.”
All Ukrainian refugees will be given free transport on trains across Britain for up to 48 hours on arrival. They will need to show their Ukrainian passport and a board pass or ticket showing their arrival into the UK.
UK hosts and their refugee matches were able to start applying for a visa yesterday. Refugees must not travel until the Home Office has approved their application, although ministers said they were aiming to turn around decisions “within hours”.
Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, said his country was “humbled” by the number of Britons who had offered their homes.
U-turn on vetting checks for hosts after safeguarding worries
Advertisement
Anyone hosting a Ukrainian refugee in their home will undergo Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks after the vetting process was toughened (writes Matt Dathan).
However, the checks, which can take weeks, will not have to be completed before the first refugees arrive as early as Monday. Those hosting children will be subject to enhanced DBS checks, while others will undergo basic checks at £23 per person, which will be paid by the government.
It is a change of policy days after Michael Gove, the communities secretary, said that only “very light-touch” checks would be needed. Charities and MPs subsequently raised safeguarding concerns.
In an interview with Times Radio, Lord Harrington of Watford, the refugees minister, said he was “not happy” with the speed at which visas for refugees were being processed but said that changes brought in yesterday would speed things up.
Just 6,500 of 27,000 visa applications have been processed in the two weeks since the Ukraine family visa scheme began. There are concerns that the slow process will lead to many of the 150,000 homes that have been offered by the British public under the scheme being left empty for weeks.
Advertisement
Yesterday the government reduced the length of visa forms by a third and will allow those with Ukrainian passports to complete the process online.
Harrington admitted that the government had no idea how many refugees would come under the Homes for Ukraine scheme and accepted that offers from the public may outstrip demand.
The minister said: “We have been overwhelmed and [are] really, really grateful for the offers.”
He said Ukrainian MPs had told him that they expect the vast majority of refugees to remain in neighbouring countries in the hope of a swift return to their home country.
