The Home Secretary has announced the reopening of the UK
Resettlement Scheme (UKRS) for new referrals, providing genuine
refugees a safe and legal route to the UK.
Around 1 in 4 referrals will be for Afghan women and girls and
Palestinian refugees, fleeing war and persecution.
This will be carried out in partnership with the United Nations
Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Refugee Assistance
Project (IRAP), which identifies and refers refugees through
established processes.
The scheme builds on the UK's long history of protecting people
fleeing war and persecution, including refugees from the Syrian
civil war, the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the Russian
invasion of Ukraine, and historic commitments to the people of
Hong Kong.
Working in partnership with local authorities, referrals will
reopen immediately, with first arrivals expected before the end
of the year.
This is in addition to 3 new safe and legal routes, announced in
the Restoring Order and
Control Statement in November 2025, which will be underpinned
by community sponsorship.
In October, charities and non-profits will be able to apply to
become sponsors for a community sponsorship route which will
allow communities to host refugees, and a student sponsorship
route which will allow universities to host refugee students. The
first arrivals of refugees for both routes are expected in autumn
2027.
Applications for sponsors for a work sponsorship route, which
will see companies host refugees, will open in spring 2027. First
arrivals will follow later that year.
All sponsors will provide accommodation, integration support and
help finding work, reducing pressure on local authorities.
The government expects the total arrivals across UK Resettlement
and the 3 new community sponsorship routes to number in the
hundreds at first, but this will grow into the low thousands as
levels of illegal migration fall. A cap will be set each year.
Those who come to Britain on these routes will be placed on a 5
year path to permanent settlement. This is, by design, more
generous than those who arrive by small boat or other illegal
means, as the government seeks to disincentivise illegal routes
and encourage capped, safe, and legal routes instead.
This forms part of the government's efforts to restore order and
control to the immigration system.
Since the general election, over 48,000 attempted small boat
crossings have been stopped. In the year to March 2026, 1,900
immigration criminals were arrested, up 74% on the previous year.
Small boat arrivals are down significantly on last year, with
this summer recording the lowest number of arrivals since 2021.
Returns have reached a 10 year high, with over 80,000 people with
no right to remain in the UK removed since July 2024, an increase
of 52% compared with the previous 2 years.
