Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Ready to welcome 50 more refugees
Council set to expand policy to help relatives settle
North Lanarkshire is to welcome 50 more refugees from the war in Syria to settle in the authority area.
Members of the council’s policy and resources committee also agreed a potential future expansion of the programme for relatives of those who have already moved here, after hearing about efforts to reunite separated families.
Airdrie and Coatbridge were the first towns in the authority to rehouse a group of refugees from the conflict, with 41 people arriving in Monklands three years ago from camps and temporary accommodation in Lebanon and Turkey.
There are now around 130 Syrian refugees living across North Lanarkshire, and the council had planned to use the 50 remaining local places in the resettlement programme to welcome their relatives to reunify families.
Councillors were told that – although 12 family reunification applications have been submitted to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) – “this has proved difficult to achieve”.
They therefore agreed both to accept Home Office nominations for another 10-12 families to move to North Lanarkshire, as well as continuing to pursue the family connections in the hope of reuniting relatives as planned.
A report for last week’s meeting read: “North Lanarkshire’s pledge in support of the Syrian resettlement programme is to take 180 refugees over the timeframe [to late 2019]; to date, the partnership has successfully resettled 133 refugees across all six of the main towns.
“[There] is desperate concern over family members left behind in Syria or scattered somewhere across the Middle East – fears over the safety of families is a topic raised with support staff on a daily basis.
“In support of the resettled families, it was agreed in May 2017 to apply to bring some of these family members to North Lanarkshire through the resettlement programme [and] that the final group of around 50 people would be about family reunification.
“This process has proved difficult to achieve due to issues with the way the UNHCR prioritises cases, which number in the millions.”
Councillors agreed both “to revert to receiving further families through normal UNHCR referrals”; and “to accept previously identified family reunification cases should they be successful in the future”, noting of the latter: “This course of action would be to increase the number resettled to more than 180.”
Syrian resettlement programme chair Councillor Pat O’Rourke said: “While it’s disappointing that we can’t reunite some of those already here with other members of their family, I’m heartened that around 50 further Syrians will soon make North Lanarkshire their home.
“The council will continue to liaise with the Home Office and the UNHCR in an attempt to get those family reunification applications which are currently ongoing granted, in order to bring families back together again.
“People in North Lanarkshire can be rightly proud that they have provided such an understanding, compassionate and friendly welcome to the 133 Syrians who have already joined us over the past two years and I’m sure will provide a similar welcome for those still to come.
“I’m delighted that the council will continue its excellent work in providing a safe new home for even more Syrians who have been displaced as a result of the terrible circumstances in their home country.”
An earlier report for the project’s working group noted: “Family reunification is the major concern for most, if not all, of the existing refugees in North Lanarkshire.
“The group is asked to agree that, should some or all of the existing family reunification cases be nominated in the future, the Partnership would agree to receive them and thereby exceed the 2016 pledge [to take 180 people].
“UK government is to consult local authorities on what refugee resettlement should look like after 2019-20 and a report will be presented to a future meeting highlighting the options.”