Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff and contractors (a) are processing cases for the (i) Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and (ii) Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) and (b) have been redeployed from (A) ARAP and (B) ACRS to support the (1) Ukraine family reunification and (2) Homes for Ukraine schemes.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We are committed to ensuring our operational teams have the resources they need to run an efficient and effective system, and we actively monitor workflows to ensure sufficient resources are in place to meet demand, including from pressures relating to the situations in Afghanistan and Ukraine.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) British nationals and (b) relatives of those nationals have been or are being resettled under the first pathway of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (i) during and (ii) since Operation Pitting.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Following the evacuation from Afghanistan over the summer, work is underway to ensure information relating to all the individuals relocated under both schemes are recorded on case working systems. Once this work concludes, statistics on ACRS and ARAP will be included in future editions of the Immigration Statistics.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people, including principals and relatives, have been supported through Community Sponsorship under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme as of 26 May 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) commenced on 6th January, providing up to 20,000 women, children and others at risk with a safe and legal route to resettle in the UK.
We helped over 15,000 people to safety in the biggest and fastest emergency evacuation in recent history, and we have continued to bring people to the UK, with over 3,000 people helped to enter since the evacuation.
In light of the success of our evacuation efforts, we expect to exceed our initial aim of resettling 5,000 through the Scheme in the first year.
Community Sponsorship provides the opportunity for friends and neighbours, charities and faith groups to play a direct role in supporting families resettled to the UK as they restart their lives here. Sponsors are able to welcome and support families through the ACRS.
The number resettled through the ACRS and Community Sponsorship will be published soon in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will ensure the Ukraine Family Scheme providing financial support to Ukrainian people seeking refuge and the £350 per month payment to sponsors is equivalent to the Homes for Ukraine Scheme and the Scottish and Welsh government's Super Sponsor Scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Ukrainian nationals coming to the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme are given access to work, benefits and public services as laid down in Appendix Ukraine to the Immigration Rules, details of which can be found at:
Immigration Rules Appendix Ukraine Scheme - Immigration Rules - Guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
There is no specific financial support available to those who choose to sponsor family members to join them in the UK. This includes those sponsoring under the Ukraine Family Scheme where there is no requirement to provide accommodation.
Therefore the Government has not extended the £350 per month ‘thank you’ payment offered to those who are willing to offer a home to refugees arriving in the UK under the Homes for Ukraine and Super Sponsor Schemes.
Those sponsoring family members able to offer appropriate accommodation can choose to sponsor their family members under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme or Super Sponsor Schemes in order to become eligible for the ‘thank you’ payment.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Yazidi refugees have been resettled in the UK since 2014; what resettlement schemes were used for those people; and how many successful Yazidi applicants were made under each resettlement scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office provides resettlement solely on the basis of needs, identified by UNHCR. Individuals ethnic and religious background is not part of this consideration.
We therefore do not publish a religious or ethnic breakdown of those who have been resettled.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has been allocated additional resources to fund the necessary increase in staff to provide the additional capacity to the UKVI team following the announcement of and the opening of the Homes for Ukraine Scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We are committed to ensuring our operational teams have the resources they need to run an efficient and effective system.
We actively monitor workflows to ensure sufficient resources are in place to meet caseworking demand of the Homes for Ukraine Scheme and the Ukraine Family Scheme which we have launched in response to the crisis in Ukraine.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the recent allocation of resources to visa application centres, what assessment she has made of when UKVI will have sufficient capacity to tackle the backlog of applications from Ukrainian refugees.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We are committed to ensuring our operational teams have the resources they need to run an efficient and effective system, and we actively monitor workflows to ensure sufficient resources are in place to meet demand, including from pressures relating to Ukraine. Over 27,000 visas have already been issued under our two schemes to assist Ukrainians fleeing conflict.
The Home Office and the commercial provider operating our Visa Application Centres have surged staff across Europe to meet demand, where we can offer over 13,000 appointments to visa applicants, and UKVI staff in the UK are working seven days a week to process applications.
As part of the Home Office’s commitment to make it easier for applicants to apply to our schemes, since 15 March Ukrainians with valid passports no longer need to go to a Visa Application Centre to give their biometrics before they come to the UK.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact on security for the diaspora Burmese community in the UK of the continuous presence of the Myanmar military attaché in the UK.
Answered by Damian Hinds
As a matter or long-standing policy, the Government does not comment on the detail of security or intelligence matters.
The Government takes potential risks to communities in the UK, including those from Myanmar, very seriously. I would encourage anyone who feels that they are under threat to contact the police in the first instance.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to advance the Asylum case of Christian Pakistani girl, Maira Shahbaz, and her family who have been in hiding for 18 months.
Answered by Kevin Foster
It is longstanding Government policy not to comment on individual cases, especially where doing so may put individuals or their family members in danger.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the Government's policy is on the eligibility of lily pad evacuees for resettlement under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The first to be resettled through the ACRS will be some of those who arrived in the UK under the evacuation programme, which included individuals who were considered to be at particular risk.
Eligible people will be prioritised and referred for resettlement to the UK as set out in the policy statement published on gov.uk on 13 September, available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghanistan-resettlement-and-immigration-policy-statement
The ACRS will be focused on people affected by events in Afghanistan, who are located in Afghanistan or in the region.