‘It is embarrassing’: Minister admits UK was not geared up for Ukraine refugee crisis

‘It is embarrassing to me that the system is taking too long,’ says Lord Richard Harrington

The UK government’s scheme to house refugees fleeing war in Ukraine has taken longer than it should, the refugees minister has admitted.

Lord Richard Harrington, who was recently appointed the role, said it is “embarrassing” the Homes For Ukraine scheme “is taking so long”.

Speaking to LBC, Lord Harrington admitted the government was "not geared up" for the volume of Ukrainians seeking refuge in the UK.

Asked why he thought this was the case, he replied: "Because it was a slow and bureaucratic process, with sending information to different places, waiting for an answer, sending it, waiting for an answer.

"The Home Office and the British government generally, was not geared up to this kind of volume."

He added: “It is embarrassing to me that the system is taking too long.”

However, Lord Harrington said that more recently the system has been finessed, including cutting the application form down “quite a lot,” with the help of home secretary Priti Patel.

Lord Richard Harrington (LBC)

Lord Harrington later admitted to a caller who had faced difficulties trying to house refugees that he did not know what the hold-ups were.

"I just don’t know where they are," said the caller, Victoria. "Is there a problem? Should we be doing something?

"Nobody’s been in contact.... you’re going round and round in circles... and it’s really, really desperate."

Lord Harrington replied: "What Victoria says is just unacceptable and I take responsibility for it. I don’t know what to say... I honestly don’t know.

"The system should work better than this, it obviously has worked better than this otherwise we wouldn’t have issued more than 8,000 visas, but I can’t understand it, why there’s been this time lag."

It comes after the first government-backed matching scheme was launched last week to link UK sponsors with Ukrainian refugees, amid warnings that schemes helping people reach safety must not become “Tinder for sex traffickers”.

Reset Communities and Refugees – a charity that has led UK community sponsorship schemes since 2018 – has launched a service to pair sponsors and refugees, provide training and carry out initial eligibility and safeguarding checks.

It has received £300,000 in initial funding from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

The charity launched the initial phase of the programme on Friday and hopes to scale up to match future demand.

It is the first and only matching scheme to receive Government backing.

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.