More than half of all Ukrainians arriving in Britain will have to leave by September 2025 if the government fails to act to secure long-term resettlement for them, the Daily Telegraph reported, citing several Conservative MPs and NGOs.
It is estimated that 182,100 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in the U.K. since February 2022 under the Ukraine Family Programme and Homes for Ukraine, both of which were set up to give them three-year residency.
Most of them arrived during the first six months of the war, meaning their residency permits will soon expire.
With no end in sight to the conflict and most of the refugees unwilling to return, several MPs are urging Rishi Sunak’s government to do something to resolve the situation.
Among several politicians, Sir Robert Buckland, who served as justice secretary in Boris Johnson’s cabinet, has called for Ukrainians to be granted more permanent status. He said that the “particularly urgent and unprecedented systems put in place to deal with this situation” needed further intervention. Buckland said some form of “higher security” should be created, but not full citizenship.
A July survey by the Office for National Statistics showed that around half of Ukrainian adults would still want to stay in the U.K. even if it became safe to return home.
Kate Brown, head of the charity Reset, pointed out that Ukrainians who had fled have started to rebuild their lives and are learning and working in English; their children are also going to school. Reset has worked with the government on the Homes for Ukraine program.
