Funding disparities, exploitation risks, emotional distress: charity report reveals local authorities’ experiences of the UK’s response to crisis in Ukraine
A report from the charity Work Rights Centre, published today, reveals the scale of the challenge facing London’s local authorities as they endeavour to support Ukrainian refugees - with limitations in the government’s Ukraine Schemes causing the biggest problems.
Local authorities have been at the forefront of the UK’s response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and are central to refugee integration, but have received little focused attention. Between October - November 2022, the Work Rights Centre conducted in-depth interviews with response teams from 12 different areas in London, uncovering serious limitations in the UK’s implementation of its Ukraine schemes. For example:
The absence of a data validation mechanism on DHLUC’s sponsor registration form left the system open to abuse and local authorities were pressured to spend precious time conducting address checks for properties that never existed in the first place. One respondent commented: “It got to a point where we were asked to go out and visit these addresses which included a smoke shop, or a kebab shop… In the end, over half of the entries turned out to be completely false.”
A mismatch of timelines and poor communication on the Foundry system meant that, on many occasions, the Home Office approved visas before councils got to conduct the necessary sponsor checks, leaving Ukrainian families vulnerable to exploitation. “We have had to move a woman because of a sponsor’s DBS record,” one interviewee recalled.
Because, for nearly ten months (until 15 December 2022), central government offered no long-term planning beyond an initial one year of funding, council staff were left feeling under pressure and worried for their own employment continuity. One respondent explained: “It is hard on our team; they can now get counselling sessions because they were hearing stories, seeing things and crying, but now they have hardened up to what happens.”
Adis Sehic, the charity’s Research & Policy Officer and co-author of the report, commented: “Piecemeal, fragmented, and developed in response to public pressure, the UK’s approach to Ukraine left the momentous task of refugee integration to civil society, and to a local government sector which has already been overstretched by years of austerity.
“Local councils' responses to us indicated that the UK needs a proper strategy for refugee integration, which moves beyond short-term, scheme-based responses, and the inconsistencies they create in the support received by different groups of refugees. We also need a clear strategy for housing, which addresses the huge deficit of affordable housing stock, and the lasting damage caused by homelessness.”
ENDS