UK Resettlement Scheme reopens for new referrals
The Home Secretary has reopened the UK Resettlement Scheme, with around a quarter of referrals expected to be Afghan women and girls and Palestinian refugees.
The Home Secretary has announced the reopening of the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS) for new referrals, providing genuine refugees a safe and legal route to the UK.
Around 1 in 4 referrals will be for Afghan women and girls and Palestinian refugees, fleeing war and persecution.
This will be carried out in partnership with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), which identifies and refers refugees through established processes.
The scheme builds on the UK’s long history of protecting people fleeing war and persecution, including refugees from the Syrian civil war, the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and historic commitments to the people of Hong Kong.
Working in partnership with local authorities, referrals will reopen immediately, with first arrivals expected before the end of the year.
This is in addition to 3 new safe and legal routes, announced in the Restoring Order and Control Statement in November 2025, which will be underpinned by community sponsorship.
In October, charities and non-profits will be able to apply to become sponsors for a community sponsorship route which will allow communities to host refugees, and a student sponsorship route which will allow universities to host refugee students. The first arrivals of refugees for both routes are expected in autumn 2027.
Applications for sponsors for a work sponsorship route, which will see companies host refugees, will open in spring 2027. First arrivals will follow later that year.
All sponsors will provide accommodation, integration support and help finding work, reducing pressure on local authorities.
The government expects the total arrivals across UK Resettlement and the 3 new community sponsorship routes to number in the hundreds at first, but this will grow into the low thousands as levels of illegal migration fall. A cap will be set each year.
Those who come to Britain on these routes will be placed on a 5 year path to permanent settlement. This is, by design, more generous than those who arrive by small boat or other illegal means, as the government seeks to disincentivise illegal routes and encourage capped, safe, and legal routes instead.
This forms part of the government’s efforts to restore order and control to the immigration system.
Since the general election, over 48,000 attempted small boat crossings have been stopped. In the year to March 2026, 1,900 immigration criminals were arrested, up 74% on the previous year. Small boat arrivals are down significantly on last year, with this summer recording the lowest number of arrivals since 2021.
Returns have reached a 10 year high, with over 80,000 people with no right to remain in the UK removed since July 2024, an increase of 52% compared with the previous 2 years.