UK to Reopen Refugee Resettlement Scheme

UK interior minister Shabana Mahmood will announce on Monday the reopening of a scheme for refugees to settle in Britain as part of a renewed focus on “safe and legal routes” for vulnerable people to reach the country.

The scheme will reopen immediately, and along with three new “community” refugee sponsorship routes previously announced, is initially expected to welcome hundreds of applicants, according to the interior ministry.

Mahmood will formally unveil its reestablishment in a speech later Monday at the ruling Labour Party’s annual conference, when she was set to say “fairness” would be integral to the government’s immigration agenda, the ministry said.

It comes amid pushback from some within centre-left Labour over a series of hardline policies aimed at both tightening the rules for migrants arriving via legal routes while curbing asylum-seeker numbers coming by irregular means.

The planned changes include contentious proposals to make some legal migrants wait years longer than under current rules before they can apply to settle permanently in the UK.

Housing Secretary Angela Rayner, an influential figure within Labour, said in a newspaper interview last week that she was concerned about some of the planned changes because they “change the goalposts”.

Around a quarter of applicants to the reopened resettlement scheme are expected to be Afghan women and girls and Palestinians, according to the interior ministry.

To be run in partnership with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), it follows the closure of an Afghan resettlement route last year.

Meanwhile within days, charities and nonprofits will be able to apply to become sponsors of refugees, with the first arrivals under this route expected in around a year’s time.

The numbers arriving under the legal programmes “will grow into the low thousands as levels of illegal migration fall”, according to the ministry, which noted an annual cap will be set.

“I know the British people have not given up on their belief that we should be compassionate, live up to our international obligations, and save the lives of those fleeing war and persecution,” Mahmood was set to tell Labour’s conference.

“But I also know this process must be capped and controlled, and communities must be ready and able to welcome those who come here.”