MATCHING Ukrainian refugees with Scottish sponsors has “progressed slower” than expected, a Scottish minister has said.
Neil Gray, the minister with special responsibility for displaced Ukrainians, delivered an update to the Scottish Parliament on the progress made on welcoming Ukrainians fleeing to Scotland.
It comes after the arrival of a second cruise ship last week, which will house Ukrainian refugees in the absence of long-term accommodation.
The Scottish Government’s super sponsor scheme was paused in July in order to provide safe accommodation to those who had already applied following unprecedented demand.
Gray said: “We are grateful to everyone across Scotland who has offered rooms and properties to host Ukrainians.
“Scottish local authorities are working to conduct the necessary person and property checks for volunteer hosts.”
He went on: “After potential accommodation is checked, the matching process that then occurs is by its nature resource-intensive, with multiple, often highly sensitive conversations required with both the displaced person and the potential host.”
But matching refugees to households has “progressed more slowly than I would wish”, he added.
“I continue to urge local authorities to complete checks as quickly as possible, drawing on the funding of £11.2 million we have made available.”
Scottish Conservative MSP Donald Cameron asked what timescale the Scottish Government was working to in finding sponsors for refugees.
He pointed out that more than 20,000 people who had applied for a visa as part of the super sponsor scheme are yet to arrive in the country, yet many Scots who had expressed an interest in hosting them had since withdrawn that interest.
Gray said the Government is looking for people to be in temporary accommodation for “as short a time as possible”.
He said: “Less than half of those who had initially expressed an interest in being a private host for a displaced Ukrainian, Cameron, suggests that those people have withdrawn.
“There are various reasons why. Either people have withdrawn, or their property is not suitable.
“They themselves, their properties, may not have passed checks, so there are a number of different reasons for why we are fishing within a pool that is smaller than may have initially been anticipated.”
He added that in terms of timescales, the Government is looking for people to be in temporary accommodation for “as short a period as possible”.
Gray said he was “very grateful and thankful” for those who have provided sponsorship.
The MS Ambition, which arrived in Glasgow last week, has been chartered by the Scottish Government to provide accommodation for up to 1750 people in 714 cabins.
Another cruise ship called MS Victoria is currently being used to house hundreds of Ukrainians in Leith, Edinburgh.
