Preparations already underway to welcome Afghan refugees in Telford

Telford & Wrekin Council says it will be working with the Home Office to offer safety for refugees fleeing from the Taliban.

The authority said that like the rest of the UK it would be giving priority to the groups most at risk – including women and girls, and those who have supported UK armed forces.

It has also called on the Government to provide local authorities with the funding to support incoming refugees.

The Government has been accused of not moving quickly enough after it said it would take up to 20,000 refugees, with as many as 5,000 in the first year.

The Home Office has claimed it will be “one of the most generous” resettlement schemes in the UK’s history but questions remain over how it will work and whether it will be enough to help those in immediate need.

A spokesman for Telford & Wrekin Council said: “Like many across the world, we have watched recent events unfold in Afghanistan and have been shocked by the desperate measures that ordinary families are taking to escape Taliban rule.

“Telford & Wrekin Council, along with all authorities across the UK, will be working with the Home Office to offer safety to refugees from Afghanistan and to support them to settle in the borough. We will be giving priority to those groups who are most at risk, including women and girls, and those who have supported UK armed forces.

“Work to welcome those seeking safety has already started and we are working hard with partners across the West Midlands region to overcome the very real logistical challenges involved and to ensure that any specialist support needed is in place.

“It is vital that the UK Government provides all the funding needed to support councils across the country to meet the full cost of this humanitarian emergency.”

A Shropshire Council spokesman said the authority has been in talks with the Home Office for a number of weeks but has not formally been asked to take any refugees at this stage.

The spokesman added that the discussions were ongoing.

It comes after Home Secretary Priti Patel defended the plans, telling Sky News: “We have to ensure we have the support structures throughout the United Kingdom. We will be working with local councils throughout the country, the devolved governments as well.

“We are working quickly on this. We cannot accommodate 20,000 people all in one go.

“Currently we are bringing back almost 1,000 people a day. This is an enormous effort. We can’t do this on our own. We have to work together.”

But she hinted the scheme could be expanded to admit double the initial figure for the first year.

“There could be up to 10,000. We are expanding categories of people,” she said.

How will the resettlement scheme work?

The Government has announced a resettlement scheme to help people trying to escape Afghanistan.

The Home Office has claimed it will be “one of the most generous” resettlement schemes in the UK’s history but questions remain over how it will work and whether it will be enough to help those in immediate need.

- What has the Government promised to do?

Take up to 20,000 Afghan refugees, with as many as 5,000 in the first year, who were forced to flee their home or face threats of persecution from the Taliban.

They will be offered the chance to set up life in the UK permanently.

Priority will be given to women and girls, and religious and other minorities, who are most at risk of human rights abuses and dehumanising treatment by the Taliban, the Home Office said.

- How will it work in practice?

It is still unclear how the scheme will actually work and detail provided by the Home Office so far is limited.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) – which facilitates resettlement – welcomed the scheme but said it is awaiting further details, indicating plans are still being developed and suggesting it could be some time before it is in operation.

It is thought it will be modelled on the previous Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS), which took place over a seven-year period.

The Government said it will work with devolved administrations and councils to ensure Afghans taken in will have the support they need to rebuild their lives.

The UK is also said to be trying to find ways with other countries to “develop a system to identify those most at risk and resettle them, ensuring help goes to those that need it”.

The Prime Minister is expected to discuss this with G7 leaders in a meeting in the coming days.

A department spokesman said the “complex picture on the ground means there will be significant challenges delivering the scheme, but the Government is working at speed to address these obstacles”.

Nevertheless, the Government has insisted the process will not compromise national security and anyone being processed through the scheme will still need to pass strict checks.

- Did the Syrian resettlement scheme work?

Charities and officials alike generally regard the Syrian resettlement scheme a success.

A total of 20,080 Syrian refugees have set up life in the UK since 2015 as a result, according to figures published earlier this year.

Those who were escaping conflict in Syria were assisted by the Government as part of its work with the UNHCR to identify people, including women and children, at risk and victims of torture.

They were granted refugee status with full rights to live and work, and provided with housing and support, and help to integrate into their new communities.

- What other help is being provided?

There is said to be confusion among refugee organisations over whether the Government’s proposals will assist those trapped in Afghanistan in immediate need.

The plan focuses on resettlement which, if applied in the same way as previous schemes, requires those legally identified as refugees to have already crossed a border (for example to a nearby country like Pakistan) in order to be processed.

Some are asking what plans there are to evacuate and relocate Afghan citizens who are stuck in the country and trying to escape. This could involve Home Office and Ministry of Defence officials processing exit visas in similar efforts to those currently being made to get British nationals to safety.

The UNHCR has also called for the rights of Afghans who make their way “spontaneously” to the UK to claim asylum to be preserved, and urged the Government not to abandon its “legal or moral responsibility” to allow people to seek safety on its shores if arriving by means other than the resettlement scheme.

The scheme is in addition to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), which offers priority relocation to the UK for current or former locally employed staff who are assessed to be under serious threat to life.

Some 5,000 former Afghan staff and their family members are expected to be relocated to the UK by the end of this year under ARAP.

Since 2013, 3,300 have been resettled in the UK in this manner.

More than 25,000 refugees, around half of them children, have been resettled in the UK over the past six years under various Government-funded schemes, the Home Office said.

- What if the situation gets worse and more help is needed?

The Government said it will keep the resettlement under review, with Home Secretary Priti Patel suggesting the programme could be expanded if needed and hinting that the number admitted in the first year could double.