Britain to launch new refugee scheme prioritising Afghan women
Britain is set to launch a new refugee admissions programme that will prioritise Afghan women and girls, Palestinian refugees and people with disabilities, the Guardian has reported.
Under the plan, those who enter Britain through this route will gain access to permanent residency faster than people who arrive in the country illegally.
The Guardian said Yvette Cooper, the UK home secretary, is due to announce the programme on Monday at the Labour Party conference. The move comes as a similar scheme has effectively remained on hold over the past two years.
According to the report, the British government expects Afghan women and girls and Palestinian refugees to make up about a quarter of those admitted when the scheme begins. Admissions will be limited at first, with an annual cap set for the programme.
UK Home Office sources told the Guardian the scheme will likely start with a few hundred people. They said that if irregular migration falls, the number admitted in later years could rise to several thousand.
Eligible refugees will be identified by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Refugee Assistance Project. Before being transferred to Britain, they will also have to undergo security and criminal record checks.
The Guardian said vulnerable women and girls, people with disabilities and those in urgent need of protection will be prioritised under the scheme. Family members may be relocated together under the plan, but this does not extend to close relatives.
Cooper is expected to present the programme as part of the new government’s effort to balance migration control with support for the most vulnerable refugees. However, migration experts and refugee support groups said the limited number of admissions at the outset would not have a significant impact on reducing Channel crossings.
Madeleine Sumption of the University of Oxford said the programme was based more on a humanitarian principle and that Britain should play its part in supporting the most vulnerable refugees. She added there was no reason to think the scheme alone could significantly reduce irregular arrivals.
John Vigneby, senior analyst at the Refugee Council UK, also welcomed the creation of safe and legal routes, but said such programmes could only weaken people-smuggling operations if they were implemented on a large scale. The plan is also likely to face criticism from right-wing parties, including Reform UK.
Fawzia Koofi, a former Afghan parliamentarian, welcomed the programme and said that after four years of advocacy and campaigning, calls for support for at-risk Afghan women had finally been answered. She expressed hope that the UK Home Office would create a mechanism so that women who have stood up to the restrictions and repression of the Taliban administration can benefit from the programme.
In recent years, Britain has been one of the main destinations for refugees who travel via the English Channel into Europe and then on to the UK. The UN refugee agency is also the main body responsible for identifying and referring refugees for resettlement in receiving countries.
