The Ukraine Refugee Crisis and Refugee Hosting
9 March 2022
The Ukraine crisis has led to a surge in enquiries from members of the public asking to volunteer and offer spare room in their homes to refugees fleeing the war.
As of March 9, 2022, almost 1,800 new hosts have registered with us to host refugees. We have enough room for Ukrainian and other nationalities of refugees. Since 2002, the Room for Refugees Network has sheltered over 2,500 refugee families and individuals (c. 4,000 individuals). Together with our volunteer hosts and referral partners (caseworkers from refugee, homelessness and aid organisations) we have helped people to regularise their status, stabilise their lives and build positive futures.
The UK has granted visas to only 300 Ukrainian refugees under its new scheme so far, according to the BBC.
As bombs rain down on Ukraine, red tape within the UK means that 17,700 dependents of Ukrainians already here, are still waiting for paperwork to be approved. Around 600 refugees are stuck in Calais, with many saying they were turned away for lack of paperwork. It is disappointing that the U.K. government has not lifted visa conditions for Ukrainians, which has prevented their entry to the U.K.
The level of public interest in “refugee hosting” is very much related to global events.
2021 August/September: The Afghan crisis prompted 2.5K new hosts to register.
2019 June/July: 326 households registered in response to the threat of eviction of 300 asylum seekers from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iran in Glasgow by the Home Office accommodation contractor SERCO. Our anti eviction campaign made national and international headlines.
2016/17: Donald Trump’s pre-election anti Muslim, anti-refugee tirades, and promises to build a wall between Mexico and the US, resulted in 3K new registered hosts, many based in the US.
2015/16: The syrian refugee crisis. 3.5K new volunteers registered to offer shelter.
(For anyone interested in registering to offer spare shelter through Room for Refugees, please register here . To volunteer, sign up here. Read about us in The Guardian too. Financial donations to support our work are most appreciated. For more info, email home@positiveactionh.org)