The government shouldn’t be boasting about the UK’s Homes for Ukraine scheme just yet

There is more to be done before Britain can claim a success of its sponsorship scheme, May Bulman writes

Ukrainian refugees during a stopover in Warsaw, en route to the UK (AP)

Within hours of the UK’s Homes for Refugees scheme portal going live last Monday, the government boasted that 44,000 members of the British public had already registered their interest in hosting those who have fled the war. Most will be aware that the figure has since climbed to more than 150,000.

Off the back of this, Sajid Javid said he expected to “see hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians arrive here in the UK”. The health secretary told LBC this week that this shows how the UK is “supporting Ukraine in every single way that we can”, echoing levelling up secretary Michael Gove’s claim last week that the scheme draws on “our proud history of supporting the vulnerable in their hour of greatest need”.

The sponsorship scheme, launched on Friday, allows Ukrainians with no family links to come to Britain and be hosted by members of the public, who will be paid £350 per month for doing so.

With millions of Ukrainians having fled from their homes, many of them now languishing in crowded humanitarian centres in bordering countries, one would expect that the 150,000 rooms being offered in the UK would be quickly filled up. A warm and secure home is exactly what these traumatised women and children are in desperate need of right now.

But progress on actually getting refugees into UK homes under the scheme appears to be slow – perhaps not yet even happening at all.

The government has refused to reveal how many Ukrainian refugees have applied to the scheme since it opened for applications on Friday – quite a contrast to the speed and willingness with which it gave out the figures on people coming forward to host.

Charities are convinced the number of applications so far will amount to a “trickle”. Lawyers say the application process is “convoluted” and “nigh on impossible” to complete, with “very difficult” forms to fill in and all documents submitted required to be in PDF format – a difficult feat when many are applying from crowded spaces from their mobile phones.

Before they even get to this stage, the scheme requires that each Ukrainian refugee applying can name the person in the UK who will host them. Mr Gove made the questionable suggestion last week that this could be done via social media. This led to a flood of Facebook pages being set up designed to “match” hosts with refugees – prompting concerns it leaves vulnerable people exposed to abuse.

To make matters worse, volunteers working with refugees on the ground in bordering countries say most Ukrainians are not even aware that the scheme exists – or if they do have no help to apply. One charity said there were no UK representatives encouraging refugees to go to the UK, adding that there was “no guidance on the UK visa applications at all”.

The government could prove that these are not legitimate problems by agreeing to publish the numbers for the scheme and showing us that in fact large numbers have applied – but it has refused to do so. Everything we know so far points to an application process that is complicated and difficult to access, not least for people who have just fled a war zone.

To actually help Ukrainians, the scheme must be far more accessible and go further than inviting 150,000 Brits to click a button to say they would like to help. There is nothing to boast about yet.