Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made on the establishment of the emergency resettlement mechanism pilot; and what her planned timetable is for the completion of that pilot.

An Emergency Resettlement Mechanism will allow the Government to provide urgent protection in exceptional circumstances to refugees referred by UNHCR as being in need of rapid emergency resettlement.

Responding to the situation in Afghanistan, the UK military undertook the largest military evacuation since the Second World War, during which we evacuated c.15,000 individuals to the UK. Over 20,000 Afghans have been brought over to the UK since the fall of Kabul. This alongside the UK’s response to Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine, continues to impact on available local authority housing and support. As a result, the commencement of the pilot has been put on hold temporarily

The UK has a strong record of helping those most in need and the UK continues to welcome refugees and people in need of protection through our resettlement and relocation schemes.