The United Kingdom is set to reopen a refugee resettlement programme aimed at providing vulnerable people fleeing conflict and persecution with a safe and legal route to settle in the country.
UK Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood announced the move on Monday, saying the government wants to place greater emphasis on controlled and legal migration pathways.
The scheme will be relaunched immediately and will initially accept hundreds of refugees. It will operate alongside three new community sponsorship routes that had previously been announced by the government.
Mahmood formally unveiled the plan during the governing Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool, where she said fairness would be central to the government’s approach to immigration.
The announcement comes as the Labour government faces pressure from different sides over its immigration policies, including measures aimed at reducing irregular migration while also changing some of the rules governing legal migration.
The resettlement programme will be operated in partnership with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP).
The move follows the closure of an Afghan resettlement route last year.
Under the government’s wider immigration plans, some migrants arriving through legal routes could also face longer waiting periods before becoming eligible to apply for permanent settlement.
Those proposals have attracted criticism from some Labour figures. Housing Secretary Angela Rayner previously expressed concern that some of the proposed changes could “change the goalposts” for migrants already planning their future in the UK.
Mahmood said Afghan women and girls, as well as Palestinians, are expected to make up about a quarter of those accepted through the reopened resettlement programme.
“We will take vulnerable refugees from across the world and give them the chance of a new and better life here in Britain with the first arrivals this year,” she said.
The government also plans to allow charities and non-profit organisations to apply to become refugee sponsors within days, with the first people arriving through that community sponsorship route expected in about a year.
Officials said the number of refugees admitted through the legal programmes could eventually rise into the low thousands as irregular migration falls. However, the government said an annual limit would be introduced to control the number of arrivals.
Mahmood said the government still recognised Britain’s responsibility to help people escaping war and persecution but insisted that the system must remain controlled.
“I know that 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,” she said.
“But I also know this process must be capped and controlled, with communities ready and able to welcome those who come here.”
Source: AFP.
