March 21, 2022 9.00 pm This story is over 24 months old

How many refugees have settled in North Lincolnshire as help offered to Ukrainians

The council has renewed its pledge to help
| Photo: Stock image

North Lincolnshire Council is to renew its pledge to housing refugees fleeing their home country.

A total of 16 families from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have been helped to build new lives, with the door open for another six over the next two years. The council has said it will also take its fair share of Ukrainian refugees when the government allows local authorities to sponsor them.

The UK has a ‘moral obligation’ to help, a paper going before North Lincolnshire Council Cabinet next week says. If approved, it will extended participation in refugee schemes until 2024.

Ten families from Syria and Iraq have settled in the borough since 2015 under the United Kingdom Resettlement Scheme. Newly-arriving families were given help with integration for twelve months, which included financial support, accommodation, registration with GPs and job centres, and help finding school places.

Six families from Afghanistan have also been settled in North Lincolnshire since the Taliban overran the country in 2021. These were staff who had worked with British forces and faced retribution if they had stayed.

Over the next two years, the local authority is expected to welcome around 30 people under the schemes, with approximately three families coming from Afghanistan and three from Iraq or Syria.

The government has recently launched the ‘Homes for Ukraine’ scheme to help people displaced by the ongoing Russian invasion. Over three million people have fled Ukraine since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion last month.

Individuals, charities and businesses can currently sponsor families to stay with them. Around 150,000 British people have signalled their interest in housing refugees so far.

When the scheme is opened up to organisations in future, North Lincolnshire Council say they will take their fair share of families. Until then, it will “look to support the scheme through promotion and Information advice and guidance to local businesses, faith groups, charities, and individuals”.