Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the Government's policy is on accepting more refugees through the resettlement scheme each year.
In June 2019, the Government reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to refugee resettlement by announcing a new, global UK Resettlement Scheme. We had anticipated – prior to the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) – that this scheme would have begun in the second quarter of 2020. Unfortunately, we remain unable to undertake resettlement activity at this stage due to the ongoing impact of the pandemic.
We are evaluating how to respond given these restrictions and pressures, but we expect to resume refugee resettlement activity when safe. Our plans for restarting depend on a variety of factors, including the lifting of restrictions imposed by the governments of host refugee countries, local authority and central government capacity, and recovery of the asylum system from the impact of COVID-19.