Almost £300,000 has been awarded to a refugee charity to help resettle Ukrainians in Liverpool.
The register of contracts tendered by Liverpool Council show that hundreds of thousands of pounds were spent engaging Refugee Action to deliver resettlement support for the more than 150 people who have come to the city fleeing war. A total of £299,700 was spent via a four month initial contract in June.
Refugee Action helps those seeking asylum to build safe new lives. The national charity gives advice and guidance as well as helping children get into schools, support booking doctors appointments and ensuring people can get a hot meal.
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A new contract is expected to begin in October this year, with 182 Ukrainians expected to be resettled in Liverpool in the “coming weeks and months”. Last month, Liverpool Council accepted grant funding of £70,000 to support welcome points for refugees in the city from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) which runs the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
An initial allocation of £1.1m was made available to the local authority for the provision of housing for those seeking refuge. Since the outbreak of the Russian invasion in February, citizens have been displaced from their homes as Putin’s tanks have laid waste and more than 8m have been forced to flee.
Around 1,100 people fleeing Ukraine have come through Liverpool Airport since war broke out, heading to a destination other than Liverpool. Across England, 660 Ukrainian refugee households have approached councils after facing homelessness.
More than 77,000 individuals have entered the UK since war broke out six months ago. Between February 24 and June 3, councils in Merseyside have helped 10 households who fled the war but then found themselves facing homelessness in the UK. That includes four single households and six with dependent children.
Liverpool has a long tradition of supporting those in need of a better life, with more than 100 people arriving from Afghanistan last September. A further 100 refugees also arrived in the city from Syria in 2016.
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