Shabana Mahmood has vowed to introduce a new safe routes system for refugees styled on the Ukrainian sponsorship scheme.
As part of the Home Secretary’s new plan, safe routes, which could open as soon as this autumn, would allow “trusted” private citizens, community groups and organisations to sponsor refugees to come to the UK.
A separate route for employers to sponsor refugees is expected to open next year.
The new UK refugee sponsorship plan was inspired by Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees scheme, which has settled 400,000 people in the country since 1979.
The Home Office expects it to operate in a similar way to the UK’s Homes for Ukraine scheme, which allowed households and community groups to sponsor more than 200,000 refugees fleeing the war zone.
