A number of days earlier than the two-year anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the UK authorities announced a collection of sweeping adjustments to the Ukraine schemes, giving simply 4 hours’ discover of their implementation.
Among the many most important adjustments are the closure of the Ukraine Household Scheme, and a brand new requirement that sponsors beneath the Properties for Ukraine Scheme can now solely be British, Irish or settled within the UK. Each of those adjustments got here into power at 3pm on 19 February 2024 and it tougher for Ukrainians to come back to the UK.
There are additionally unanswered questions on how the newly introduced Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme will work, resulting in issues that Ukrainians who fail to make an extension software earlier than the expiry of their go away may develop into topic to hostile atmosphere measures.
Few may see the above adjustments coming, not to mention the velocity with which they might be carried out. Work Rights Centre, along with different organisations aiding Ukrainian nationals, has sought to have interaction with the House Workplace across the problem of Ukrainians with the ability to lengthen their permission to stay within the UK past the preliminary grant of three years. At no level throughout these discussions had been we, or our counterparts, given any indication of final Monday’s adjustments.
We define the affect of those bulletins, the reasons the federal government has given till now for them, and why we view ministers’ departure from due course of on this occasion shouldn’t be permitted.
Closure of Ukraine Household Scheme
In asserting the closure of the Ukraine Household Scheme, the Minister of State for Authorized Migration and the Border stated that the federal government needed to offer a single abroad software route for Ukrainians in search of to come back to the UK; the Properties for Ukraine Scheme, which might function its necessities for lodging checks, a minimal lodging dedication from the sponsor and safeguarding checks.
These necessities didn’t apply to the Ukraine Household Scheme, and the federal government has due to this fact said its closure will result in a diminished danger of homelessness and reliance on emergency assist supplied by native authorities. The federal government additionally stated the Ukraine Household Scheme’s closure will dispose of the inconsistency between it and the Properties for Ukraine Scheme when it comes to monetary assist given to sponsors.
Having allowed the Ukraine Household Scheme to function for practically two years, and ourselves and different frontline organisations aiding Ukrainians having raised the assorted dangers of homelessness for them throughout this era, it’s obscure why the federal government has taken this drastic step. There are a mess of different, extra significant steps that could possibly be taken to deal with these dangers for Ukrainian nationals and different migrants within the UK.
In closing the Ukraine Household Scheme, the federal government has considerably narrowed the scope of relations who can apply to affix their relations within the UK. Below the Ukraine Household Scheme, the definition of a member of the family included a right away member of the family of a UK-based sponsor, an prolonged member of the family or instant member of the family of an prolonged member of the family – the sponsor is also British, settled, have restricted go away as a refugee or particular person granted humanitarian safety or maintain pre-settled standing.
The definition of member of the family beneath the Properties for Ukraine Scheme is extra restrictive – the one non-Ukrainian relations who can apply beneath the Properties for Ukraine Scheme are instant relations. The nationality and immigration necessities of a sponsor, as defined additional beneath, are additionally now far stricter beneath the Properties for Ukraine Scheme.
Having scrapped the Ukraine Household Scheme, many Ukrainians and their relations will now both be unable to be suitably accommodated by their UK-based relative beneath the Properties for Ukraine Scheme, wrestle to search out one other eligible sponsor who can meet the necessities of this scheme, or not even be eligible within the first place to use as a non-Ukrainian member of the family.
It’s inaccurate, as the federal government has stated, that ‘the same sponsors [under the Ukraine Family Scheme] can be matched to their guests under the HFU scheme, subject only to a process in which accommodation is checked’.
The Work Rights Centre opposes strikes to make it tougher for Ukrainians to reunite with their relations within the UK, via each the closure of the Ukraine Household Scheme and tightening of the Properties for Ukraine Scheme. We additionally oppose the roll-back of rights of others impacted by the conflict in Ukraine, together with third-country nationals in Ukraine who’re the relations of Ukrainians with a relative within the UK.
Adjustments to Properties for Ukraine Scheme
Previous to the adjustments of 19 February 2024, an individual could possibly be a sponsor beneath the Properties for Ukraine Scheme if that they had not less than six months of immigration permission left. In justifying the brand new requirement for sponsors beneath the Properties for Ukraine Scheme to be British, Irish or settled within the UK, the federal government has stated that this alteration will align the sponsor eligibility necessities extra intently with these in Appendix FM, the principle provision of the immigration guidelines for household functions.
In aiming for this alignment, nevertheless, it’s unclear why holders of non permanent immigration standing comparable to refugees and holders of humanitarian safety or pre-settled standing, who can sponsor a household immigration software beneath Appendix FM, can now not accomplish that beneath the Properties for Ukraine Scheme.
Ukrainian nationals who submitted an software beneath the Properties for Ukraine Scheme after 3pm on the identical date, and who succeeded of their software, would now be granted 18 months’ permission to be within the UK, versus 36 months as had been the case for candidates ever because the introduction of the Ukraine schemes. Ukrainians with permission beneath one of many Ukraine schemes will be capable to apply to increase it for as much as 18 months as of early 2025 beneath a brand new Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme.
The federal government likewise provides that Ukrainians with permission beneath the Ukraine schemes, and who will now be excluded from appearing as sponsors beneath the Properties for Ukraine Scheme, ‘were never intended to be allowed to function as sponsors themselves,’ – if this was the unique coverage intention for the Properties for Ukraine Scheme, it’s unclear why Ukrainians had been capable of sponsor beneath the scheme till now.
The federal government has stated that ‘there is little evidential basis to suggest that changes to Homes for Ukraine sponsor eligibility criteria would restrict sponsor availability to the point where it could constrain new arrivals’. Our frontline advisers have witnessed candidates beneath the Properties for Ukraine Scheme being more and more sponsored by relations within the UK with permission beneath a Ukraine scheme.
In a context the place there are already not sufficient accessible sponsors within the UK and now not a Ukraine Household Scheme, it’s exhausting to see how the adjustments to the Properties for Ukraine Scheme is not going to prohibit Ukrainians’ capability to come back to the UK beneath this scheme.
Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme
The federal government has stated that the announcement of the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme offers Ukrainians who’ve sought sanctuary within the UK with ‘certainty.’ Whereas we welcome the announcement of an extension for Ukrainian nationals, we can not agree this specific one constitutes certainty.
In UK immigration regulation, migrants typically have to have spent a minimal of 5 years beneath a selected immigration route earlier than they develop into eligible to use for indefinite go away to stay. Ukrainian nationals who at present have permission beneath one of many Ukraine schemes, and are then granted an additional 18 months’ permission to remain beneath the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme, could have accrued a complete of 54 months’ keep within the UK. That is 4 months wanting the standard 60 months required to use for indefinite go away to stay. In impact, Ukrainians are nonetheless no clearer than earlier than final Monday’s announcement as as to whether they’ll finally qualify for indefinite go away to stay.
It seems that Ukrainians can be required to make an additional software, beneath the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme, to acquire an additional 18 months’ permission to stay within the UK, however it’s unclear what necessities Ukrainians might want to meet in making this software. If the federal government’s precedence is ‘certainty’, it ought to make these necessities clear now, to keep away from Ukrainians all of the sudden realising they aren’t eligible for an extension of their keep within the UK.
We wish to know why the federal government has not carried out an computerized extension of standing, as just lately seen in respect of holders of pre-settled standing, to allow Ukrainians to stay within the UK for an additional 18 months. There can be Ukrainians within the UK, among the many tens of 1000’s who’ve made it their dwelling within the final two years, who will fail to make an extension software earlier than the expiry of their go away, and due to this fact develop into topic to hostile atmosphere measures – lots of them have fled conflict and are coming to phrases with vital current and ongoing trauma.
With the House Workplace’s backlogs for asylum and humanitarian safety, in addition to advanced household and human rights claims, as vital as they at present are, there are extra environment friendly methods to additional Ukrainians’ keep within the UK slightly than via a further software course of.
Abstract
Whereas the federal government has made no point out of in search of to chop the numbers of Ukrainian nationals coming to the UK, it’s tough to divest the above adjustments from others made on the identical day to ban overseas care workers from bringing their dependants to the UK, as a part of the federal government’s plan to chop web migration. As outlined above, it has now develop into tougher for Ukrainians to come back to the UK, and which will additionally translate into the decrease web migration figures the federal government is aiming for.
In asserting the adjustments with out warning, ministers stated they needed to “prevent a rush of applications”, and so departed from the standard conference of permitting a session interval of 21 days. We’re involved that this motion undermines democratic procedures of accountability and any sense of authorized certainty, stability, and predictability. Now we have, due to this fact, written to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, at the side of the Immigration Legislation Practitioners’ Affiliation (ILPA), recommending that the assertion of adjustments be annulled.
The Ukraine schemes have enabled tens of 1000’s of Ukrainian nationals to hunt security within the UK. At a time when the longer term route of the conflict in Ukraine stays unsure, and folks proceed to depart the nation in quest of security overseas, it’s unlucky that the federal government has made it solely tougher for these individuals to search out it within the UK, via the closure of the Ukraine Household Scheme and tightening the sponsor necessities beneath the Properties for Ukraine Scheme.
