The refugees will be accommodated on the MS Victoria, which will dock in Leith, Edinburgh, as new measures to deal with the influx of new arrivals from Ukraine were announced.
The ship, which was used on Finnish President Tarja Halonen’s campaign cruise in 2005, has a capacity for more than 2,000 passengers under normal circumstances, but is due to temporarily accept 739 refugees.
The government said it would put a three-month “pause” on the scheme, which has been plagued by problems since its launch in March, saying the number of new applicants had “increased significantly” in recent weeks and needed time to matching new arrivals with long-term accommodation.
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MS Victoria. Tallink Ferries
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Ukrainian refugees hail Edinburgh residents for making them feel welcome
The super sponsor scheme, which is not available to refugees who want to live in England, allows Ukrainians to travel to Scotland with the government being the named sponsor of their visa application under the Homes for Ukraine route in the UK. They can then be looked after by local councils until a permanent home is found – rather than having to contact sponsors they have found in advance on social media.
In June, The Scotsman reported that government officials were drawing up plans to halt the scheme after it emerged hundreds of refugees had been trapped in temporary hotel accommodation for weeks amid claims the matching process was moving slowly. However, the Scottish Government rejected the claims, insisting there were “no plans to suspend or suspend the super sponsorship scheme”.
The Welsh Government last month announced the suspension of its own version of the scheme while it works to “improve” conditions for people arriving.
The Scottish Government has scrapped its overworked super-sponsorship scheme for Ukrainian refugees
A £5m Government fund will see 200 disused council properties in North Lanarkshire refurbished. Meanwhile, extra staff will be deployed in “emergency response teams” to help local authorities find those in temporary accommodation suitable long-term accommodation, and Wheatley Housing Group, Scotland’s biggest social landlord, has pledged to provide 300 homes to availability of local authorities in Scotland to accommodate displaced people from Ukraine.
The Scottish Refugee Council today appealed for assurances that the pause, which comes into effect on Wednesday, would be temporary and that the scheme would be restored after three months.
Gary Christie, head of policy, communications and communications at the Scottish Refugee Council, said: “We are seeking assurances that this pause will be temporary and that the scheme will start again as soon as possible. The war in Ukraine has not stopped and the need for escape routes from Ukraine has not disappeared. This government-led scheme is as vital and necessary as it was three months ago.
“We know that housing is currently a problem across Europe, but the Scottish Government and local authorities must use this time to put in place urgently needed infrastructure so that more Ukrainians can arrive and receive the most suitable accommodation and support and the scheme can be restored – start as soon as possible.”
He added: “We are also seeking urgent assurances that any stay on board the ship will be as short as possible, that people will have access to all necessary services and support and that their rights will not be affected or jeopardized in any way.” “
The pause on new applications will not affect anyone who has already applied or received a visa.
Refugees Secretary Neil Gray said he would meet Lord Harrington, the UK’s Refugee Secretary, today to seek clarity on existing funding arrangements for the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme and to ask whether the UK Government would consider introducing its own supersponsor arrangements to reduce pressure on Scotland and Wales.
He said: “As a nation, Scotland has risen in solidarity with Ukrainians in their hour of need. I am proud that, largely thanks to our Super Sponsorship scheme, we are now providing safe accommodation to the highest number of Ukrainians per head of population in the UK.”
He added: “With the recent drop in people applying for private sponsorship in England and Wales pausing its own scheme, the number of applications naming the Scottish Government as a sponsor has increased significantly in recent weeks. It is for this reason that we have taken the incredibly difficult decision to follow Wales by pausing our scheme so that we can continue to provide a high level of support and care to everyone who has already been granted a visa.
“We will review our position in three months, but of course if circumstances change in that time we will move that date forward. In the meantime, we are taking significant action to increase the capacity of our temporary accommodation and are also strengthening our matching system to maximize the number of displaced people placed with volunteer hosts who have completed the necessary protection checks.”
Mr Gray said visa applications listing the Scottish Government as a sponsor were up 21 per cent on the previous week to July 5, visas issued were up 27 per cent and arrivals under the super sponsor scheme were increased by 20 percent.
Scottish Labour’s foreign affairs spokeswoman Sarah Boyack said: “This is deeply disappointing news. The conflict is far from over, but the Ukrainians are pulling the rug out from under them.
A total of 21,256 Scottish sponsor visas were issued – more than 20 per cent of the UK total and the highest per head number in the UK. Scotland currently grants asylum to over 7,000 people, two-thirds of whom have applied for the Scottish Super Sponsor Scheme. The Scottish Government said this was on top of the 3,000 the Scottish Government had committed to welcoming when the scheme launched in March.
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