Since the beginning of the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme commitment of welcoming 20,000 refugees, we have played our part, working with Devon County Council and the other Devon District Councils.

This work will mean that 232 refugees will be able to find safety in the UK through local authority and Community Sponsorship resettlement.

Devon has formed a partnership to help families to settle in and lead independent, safe and productive lives. This partnership includes professionals from local authority housing, the NHS, education and social care. All working to help ensure that local services will be able to meet refugees’ needs.

Community and voluntary organisations are taking the lead in helping families get to know the local area and UK culture, make contact with faith and support groups, learn English and where possible, get into work.

Refugee families have been through great hardship and settling in a new country is a huge challenge. Families are entitled to privacy, so councils will not make announcements about the timing and locations of the resettlement of individual families.

In June 2019, the Government announced an ongoing global resettlement scheme for the most vulnerable refugees. The UK plans to resettle in the region of 5,000 of the world’s most vulnerable refugees in the first year of the new scheme, once the Vulnerable Person’s Resettlement Scheme concludes. As before we plan to volunteer to participate in the new scheme and control the rate at which families arrive.