Eastbourne to welcome more than a dozen refugees through Homes for Ukraine scheme

More than a dozen visas have been issued for Ukrainian refugees to stay with Eastbourne residents, new figures show.

The Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme, also known as Homes for Ukraine, was announced in February by the UK Government, allowing citizens to volunteer to house refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.

Sponsors agree to offer accommodation for at least six months, with those receiving sponsorship allowed to live, work and study in the UK for up to three years.

Provisional data from the Home Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities shows that 17 visas had been issued for refugees staying with hosts based in Eastbourne as of Wednesday (April 6).

They were among the 12,500 sponsorship visas issued nationally by Thursday (April 7), though just 1,200 refugees – less than 10% – had arrived in the UK through the scheme by April 5 – the latest point at which data on arrivals is available.

The Home Office and DLUHC cautioned that a very small number of visas issued across the UK had no postcode linked to them, while the data is likely to include some duplicate records and therefore may not be an exact record of the number of people with visas.

Many others have received visas through the Ukraine Family Scheme, which allows Ukrainian nationals to join family members in the UK.

Some 28,500 visas have been provided under the scheme nationally, of which 10,800 people had arrived by April 5.