More refugees who are fleeing conflict could be welcomed
Councillors will vote on whether to resettle 120 people who need help
Council chiefs are this week set to approve the arrival of another 120 Syrian refugees.
Rutherglen was the first town in South Lanarkshire to welcome people fleeing the Middle East conflict.
And councillors will vote today (Wednesday, May 16) on whether to allow more families to settle here.
A report going before the council’s Executive Committee said: “The programme provides support to vulnerable individuals and families who are survivors of violence and torture, women and children at risk and those needing medical care.”
The cost of the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Programme is fully funded by the Home Office. It is designed to assist Syrians who have fled to neighbouring countries as a result of the ongoing conflict involving the Assad regime.
Initiated in 2015 by the UK Government, it intends to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020. Individuals come from non-european camps (Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt etc) and are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
Between December 2015 and April 2018, a total of 32 families (118 individuals) were resettled in South Lanarkshire.
Rutherglen welcomed the first refugees, and seven families are now living in Rutherglen and Cambuslang. There are a further 11 families in the Hamilton area, nine in Clydesdale and five within East Kilbride.
The council report adds: “On arrival the families require initial intensive support to assist with their integration into their new home, community and Scottish way of life.
“The families are supported by Housing and Technical Resources’ specialist support provision refugee resettlement team. Support continues to be provided for an average eight to ten months, depending upon the assessed needs of each household.
“Families have integrated well within their local communities, which have been welcoming and supportive. Children are attending school/nursery, adults are attending ESOL (English for Speaker of Other Languages) provision/college and working or volunteering.
“Families are making local friends as well as keeping in touch with other Syrians throughout the UK who have also arrived through the programme. This provides a local and national support network for families.”
It is proposed that 60 individuals are resettled here over 2018/19 and 2019/20.
This equates to around families over a year. 12 to 15
Since March 2011, over five million Syrians have fled their country
More than six million Syrians are internally displaced
Over 13 million people inside Syria require humanitarian assistance, including nearly six million children
At the end of 2017, more than half the country’s hospitals, clinics and primary health care centres were only partially functioning or had been damaged beyond repair
●The United Nations has called for $4.4 billion to help five million refugees in neighbouring countries in 2018-2019
Filippo Grandi, UNHCR High Commissioner, said:“syria is the biggest humanitarian and refugee crisis of our time”