Authorities work with volunteers to help refugees
WITH refugees from Ukraine now beginning to arrive in Aldershot and Farnborough, Rushmoor Borough Council is working with the voluntary sector and Hampshire County Council to make sure they are supported.
The borough council is continuing to work closely with the county council – the lead agency – and Rushmoor Voluntary Services (RVS) to ensure any families from Ukraine are welcomed and integrated in the borough.
This includes working with sponsors and community support groups to make sure refugees can settle in and receive the help they need, developing a support network with partners and establishing links with the existing Ukrainian community in Rushmoor.
Residents who want to help with the community response are encouraged to register their interest online with RVS, which is co-ordinating a support network. There they can provide details of any kind of help they can give – anything from food, clothing and phones to access to healthcare, mental health support and animal fostering, by filling in the RVS form. Offers of help are welcome from individuals, organisations and faith groups.
The borough council’s assistant chief executive Rachel Barker, said: “Leaving your country and everything behind and travelling thousands of miles to escape war is a traumatic experience for anyone.
“We want to do our level best to make sure that the refugees from Ukraine are supported while in Rushmoor and become a valued part of our community.”
Rushmoor Voluntary Service’s chief executive officer Donna Bone, said: “As we saw so clearly during the pandemic, the people of Aldershot and Farnborough have always responded fantastically well to help the vulnerable and those in need.
“I’m sure they will respond equally well to those coming here to escape the conflict in their homeland.
“I would encourage anyone with offers of help to head over to our website and let us know what they can do.”
For more information and details of how refugees from Ukraine are being welcomed to Rushmoor, visit the borough council’s Support for Ukraine page on its website.
MORE than 200 householders in Hart and Rushmoor have offered their homes to Ukrainian refugees via the Government’s sponsorship route.
According to the latest Home Office figures, as of May 3, 160 Hart residents have offered to provide accommodation to Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion via the Homes for Ukraine scheme, along with 67 in Rushmoor.
The figures show that households in Winchester have been among the most generous in the county with 293 visas issued to those who had sponsors in the city. That’s equivalent to 233 per 100,000 residents – the joint-sixth most per head of the population of hundreds of areas across the UK.
Chichester, in Sussex, had the most per head, at 272 per 100,000, followed by South Cambridgeshire (270 per 100,000) and South Oxfordshire (262 per 100,000).
Many of the areas taking the most refugees per capita are affluent, with eight of the top 10 in the South East or London. This may suggest that people in those places are, on average, more able to help in terms of space and resources.
In Hampshire, Test Valley had the next highest number relative to its local population, at 205 per 100,000 – the 11th-highest – followed by East Hampshire (185 per 100,000).
Overall, 2,036 visas had been given to Ukrainians to stay with hosts across the area by May 3.
The Homes for Ukraine scheme was launched on March 18 to allow Ukrainian nationals to come to the UK if they have a named sponsor who can provide accommodation. It is one of two programmes run by the Government, with the separate Ukraine Family Scheme allowing Ukrainians to join relatives already in the UK. The family scheme was launched on March 4 but home sponsorship quickly overtook it in terms of the number of visas provided.
The latest national figures show that around 59,100 (62%) of the 95,500 visas issued through both routes by May 5 were via Homes for Ukraine. They also show for the first time that more people have now arrived to stay with a home sponsor (19,500) than to join family members (17,900), as of May 3.
The Homes for Ukraine scheme has faced criticism for delays since it was launched, with some hosts threatening to take legal action against the Government on behalf of the people they are sponsoring.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said he was “deeply concerned” by the many stories the charity was hearing from people facing long waiting times to receive permission to travel.
He said: “They urgently need to find safety in the UK and face unnecessary hurdle after hurdle in doing so. We are hearing that visas for all members of a family who have applied together are not always processed together, causing significant delays to their ability to travel to the UK.
“We are also hearing that people are having real difficulties with receiving emails at all, or they are receiving emails at different times from others in their family, all of which is causing huge distress and delays. Responding to what is clearly a serious humanitarian crisis by offering only visa routes was doomed to fail. It amounts to putting paperwork and bureaucracy before people who have no choice but to leave their homes.”
A spokesman for the Government said: “Thanks to the generosity of the public who have offered their homes to Ukrainians fleeing the war and through our Ukraine Family Scheme, nearly 95,500 visas have been granted with almost 37,400 Ukrainians arriving safely in the UK.
“We are processing thousands of visas a day – this shows the changes we made to streamline the service are working and we’ll continue to build on this success so we can speed up the process even further.”
Responding to what is clearly a serious humanitarian crisis by offering only visa routes was doomed to fail Enver Solomon
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