By Ben Kerrigan-
The government is to rehouse hundreds of Ukrainians granted visas under the Homes for Ukraine scheme because the people they were supposed to stay with have been deemed “unsuitable”.
The Local Government Association says it has been flagging up the fact that some unsuitable accommodation offered since the start of the Homes for Ukraine scheme have been unsuitable.
At the moment, there is no system in place for universities to sponsor Ukrainian refugees. However, Universities UK, the vice-chancellors’ group, said 20 universities have expressed interest.
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Prof David Green, vice-chancellor of Worcester University, said: “We registered our accommodation on the Homes for Ukraine website in March. Sadly, we have no refugees with us, which is so frustrating. We remain extremely keen to do this and rooms could be made available immediately.”
Its chair, councillor James Jamieson, said: “We are asking the government to give us information on sponsors prior to matching, so we can get ahead of the game in making checks.”
He said councils had been getting more advance information in the past 10 days, but it was “still far short of what we would like”.
He stressed that the Home Office was responsible for checking if hosts have criminal records before a visa is granted. He added: “There is no check on accommodation before that, no local police check, and no local knowledge applied to people.”
A government spokesperson said: “Homes for Ukraine has stringent safeguarding measures, and they are working. All potential sponsors and adults living in the household are subject to security checks, including criminal records, before visas are approved to allow applicants to travel to the UK. Councils also conduct further checks on the sponsor and their household as quickly as possible once a visa application has been submitted.
Refugee charities have warned since the scheme’s launch that with most of the refugees being women and children, and many matches made on social media websites such as Facebook, the scheme risked being targeted by predatory men.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), which runs the scheme, has insisted that no visa is issued until the Home Office has completed checks on every adult in a sponsor household.