Syrian refugees are set to arrive

Council chiefs are preparing to welcome another 10 to 12 families of Syrian refugees in the coming weeks.

Plans are under way for their arrival, which is expected to happen from March.

Since September 2015, North Lanarkshire has welcomed 133 refugees through the Syrian Resettlement Programme.

This latest batch are expected to receive accommodation in the Bellshill and Cumbernauld areas.

The reason for that is other areas, such as Motherwell, are experiencing added pressure to housing lists because of the council’s Tower Reprovisioning Programme.

The council has just over 4000 properties within 48 multi−storey blocks, and 57 per cent of all the tower stock is in Motherwell, where flats within tower blocks accounts for nearly 40 per cent of all council stock in the area

A report on the Syrian Resettlement Programme is due to go before the council’s Youth, Equalities and Empowerment Committee next Monday, February 4.

It says all of the refugees have “settled well” but goes on to say: “Some of the individuals who had gone on to further education (FE) have felt it necessary to take a step back due to struggles with language as the academic level got higher.

“They are being offered additional support through the colleges and local ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes with a view to returning to FE when it is appropriate.

“The approach to ESOL is continuing to develop with groups not only taking part in classroom learning with their peers. Some individuals have graduated to wider learning in mixed classes and the team have provided alternative ways to learn English including excursions and residential learning.”

Syrian families have arrived as part of the UK Government’s Syrian Refugee Resettlement Programme. It was initiated in 2015 to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees in the UK within a five-year period to 2020, with funding from the from the Home Office.

The report for councillors adds: “Dialogue is about to begin on what refugee resettlement will look like after April 2020 when the Syrian Resettlement Programme comes to an end.”

And it goes on: “The council and North Lanarkshire Partnership will make a contribution to this debate and serious decisions will need to be taken.”

■ 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 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”

■ And 140 refugees are in South Lanarkshire, with 100 more due over the next year.