Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll and Bute)
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 and Bute)
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We therefore do not publish a religious or ethnic breakdown of those who have been resettled.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 and Bute)
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 and Bute)
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 and Bute)
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 - Minister of State (Education)
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 and Bute)
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 and Bute)
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 - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
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.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll and Bute)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of resettling any of the Afghan women who were evacuated by the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute to Greece.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
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.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll and Bute)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to urgently expedite the applications of (a) staff employed by Adam Smith International and (b) others employed by the UK government’s implementing partners that worked across Afghanistan and in ministries to deliver UK funded aid projects who are being targeted as UK employees by the Tailban, under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy.
Answered by Kevin Foster
It is not appropriate to comment on individual cases in a response to a written parliamentary question
The Home Office remains committed to processing applications approved by the Ministry of Defence as quickly as possible and we are working across Government and with international partners to bring approved applicants to the UK.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll and Bute)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy, how many applicants were (a) accepted, (b) called forward to Kabul International Airport, (c) evacuated by 28 August, (d) rejected, (e) appealed, and (f) have not yet been processed for (i) current or past locally employed UK government staff; (ii) private companies implementing UK government funded programmes; (iii) NGOs and non profit organisations implementing UK government funded programmes; (iv) Afghan government partners (including MPs, ministers, justice officials, etc); (v) Afghan media and civil society organisations, and (vi) other categories that the UK government recognised.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Afghan relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) was launched on 1 April 2021. Since this date, around 7,000 former Afghan locally employed staff and their families have been relocated to the UK, including those relocated as part of HMG’s evacuation from Afghanistan.
The specific information requested is not held in a published format and to gather it would require a disproportionate cost.
The Home Office does publish quarterly updates on immigration statistics. Information relating to arrivals under ARAP will be published in these statistics in due course. The most recent published migration statistics can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-statistics
Guidance relating to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghan-relocations-and-assistance-policy