Working group meets regularly to support refugee arrival

The Council has established a working group to plan for and support the arrival of refugees from Ukraine and Afghanistan into Orkney.

The Ukraine and Afghanistan Refugee Resettlement Working Group is made up of members from the Council, Police Scotland, NHS Orkney, the Third Sector and Orkney Housing Association Ltd and meets fortnightly at present.

Frances Troup, the Council’s Head of Community Learning, Leisure and Housing, is chair of the group, she said: “Orkney Islands Council, like all other local authorities throughout the UK, will play a vital part in the resettlement of refugees from Ukraine and Afghanistan. While our finance and staff resources may be limited, the will and drive of us all to help is plentiful.

“Given the sensitivities around any resettlement, but particularly those borne out of war and lack of choice, this is an area that needs to be handled very carefully with a considered process.

“This is a hugely challenging situation in relation to the delivery of services as we don’t yet have detail of household profiles or needs, however, there’s lots we are doing to prepare as best we can for the arrival of refugees.

“Our very small team is focused, and we are working on the need to access interpretation and translation services, the recruitment of volunteers to provide support, undertake property inspections by Environmental Health and protecting vulnerable groups checks to be carried out by the Council’s Human Resources team, the recruitment of a lead officer to take this forward and a housing support officer and looking at how the financial packages will be administered.

“We must give consideration to after care if arrangements break down and access to homeless accommodation is required at short notice, local access to education and health care services. We now have the welcome packs for refugees in various languages.”

The Scottish Government have schemes around the resettlement of both Afghan and Ukrainian refugees. The UK Government also have a Homes for Ukraine Scheme which allows people to offer rooms within their own home or separate accommodation - this is outwith the Council’s control and offers can be made anywhere.

Ms Troup continued: “The Council decided some time ago that we would look to house two Afghan and a minimum of two Ukraine households with accommodation to be sought from the private sector with backup from the social housing sector if required and work on this continues.

“We have updated a complete plan which we have used previously (for Syrians) and now have two, one for the Ukranian schemes and one for the Afghan schemes. This allows us to move forward but time and resources are very tight. As things progress, we will review the frequency of meetings required.”

For more information on the Ukraine resettlement schemes head here: https://www.orkney.gov.uk/News?postid=5669