Positive Action in Housing (Registered Charity SC027577) is a refugee and migrant homelessness charity with a global remit. We run the Room for Refugees Scheme whereby people offer to take refugees into their own homes. We have almost 3,500 fully-registered refugee hosts in every single part of the UK. We run the scheme in partnership with 147 caseworkers from refugee support agencies including the British Red Cross and the Refugee Council. Since September 2015, we have provided over 12,000 nights of shelter and seen life transforming changes for both hosts and guests. Some hosts have seen their guests achieve refugee status and move onto independent lives and to be reunited with their own families and keep up the bond with their hosts. Other hosts are accommodating bright young students hoping to study medicine or law. They have become members of the family. Other families have adopted refugee grandmothers as a member of their household. The matches are amazing to observe and the feedback is inspiring!  

The need for such a scheme has never been greater.

So far this year, over 4,000 refugees have drowned trying to reach Europe. More than 10,000 women, children, babies, have drowned since 2014 in the Mediterranean. More people have drowned than in previous years, because refugees are taking more dangerous routes as a result of being denied safe passage by Europe. There are 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees already in Europe. Europol says more than 10,000 unaccompanied refugee children have disappeared in Europe during the past 2 years. Many of the missing children are feared to have been forced into sex trafficking rings or forced labour. 

The British Government is currently using local authorities and private landlords to resettle Syrian refugees under the Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme.So far, the Government has resettled only 1,602 Syrian refugees since September 2015. This falls short of the 5,000 a year target the government committed to. At the time, David Cameron said Britain should fulfill its moral responsibility. Their performance on the accommodation of unaccompanied child refugees is also pitiful.

We have urged the UK Government to engage with refugee hosting schemes. Theresa May, the then-home secretary, told the Home Affairs Select Committee she would “consider” such schemes, but the public have heard no more since. This is such a shame as we have seen firsthand how our hosts have so much more to offer as well as somewhere to stay. if they did let us register with the VPR Scheme we would be able to bring more people in quicker.  

We think the British government needs to utilise the goodwill of those of its citizens who have the space to take refugees into their homes. We have thousands of families and individuals who are ready to open their homes and hearts to refugees in need. Many hundreds have expressed a willingness to take in unaccompanied child refugees. Many of these are registered foster-carers.Room for refugees has the capacity to accommodate Syrian and other refugees in every part of the UK, effectively bypassing those local authorities who have not registered with the home office under the VPR Scheme. 

We therefore call on the British government to harness the goodwill of those individuals and families who are willing to take refugees into their homes and quickly resettle Syrian refugees so that they may begin the process of rebuilding their lives.

more info: www.roomforrefugees.com

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