Refugee Resettlement Scheme Expanded To Include More Countries

Amber Rudd MP announced today that changes will be made to the Vulnerable Person’s Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) to enable more nationalities to benefit.

The VPRS scheme was launched in January 2014 and initially only Syrians were able to access asylum through the route. So far, 7,307 Syrians, half of whom are children, have been brought to the UK under the scheme. VPRS will now be extended to include refugees from the Middle East North Africa region and a total of 20,000 refugees are expected to be resettled by 2020. In addition to the VPRS, the Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme launched last year is aiming to rehome 3,000 of the most vulnerable children and their families from the Middle East and North Africa region. Amber Rudd has today stated that the Government remains committed to achieve the overall numbers announced for both schemes.

Safe Passage worked with Refugees Welcome supporters in Maidenhead to get Theresa May on the record delivering on the resettlement commitment. It is great to see this now formally repeated in today’s statement, but as we approach 2020 and with a continually increasing number of people displaced globally, we hope that the government will commit to welcoming refugees for the longer term.