Ukrainians fleeing from the Russian invasion of their homeland have been offered the chance to seek refuge in Scotland through a dedicated visa programme.
As World Refugee Day is marked on Monday, across the globe the UN Refugee Agency said there are more than 100 million displaced people in need of support.
More than 12,000 visas have been issued to Ukrainians hoping to come to Scotland fleeing Vladimir Putin’s war. 4,773 have arrived, according to the Home Office.
Here is a list of the number of visas issued under the Homes For Ukraine sponsorship programme as of June 14, broken down by the local authority of the sponsor’s property, in order from highest to lowest.
Four Scottish councils have been issued with fewer than five visas.
- Edinburgh 524
- Fife 295
- Perth and Kinross 258
- Glasgow 223
- Highland 200
- Aberdeenshire 167
- Angus 142
- Dumfries & Galloway 131
- Argyll and Bute 127
- South Lanarkshire 122
- Aberdeen 111
- Stirling 111
- Scottish Borders 108
- West Lothian 102
- North Lanarkshire 86
- East Lothian 78
- Moray 74
- South Ayrshire 62
- Renfrewshire 61
- North Ayrshire 58
- Falkirk 55
- East Ayrshire 54
- Midlothian 54
- Dundee City 51
- East Dunbartonshire 51
- East Renfrewshire 47
- Inverclyde 37
- Clackmannanshire 22
Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles), Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands and West Dunbartonshire have been issued fewer than five visas. The exact total has been withheld for data disclosure purposes.
A total of 8,647 visas have been issued under the direct sponsorship of the Scottish Government as a “super sponsor”.
However, around 500 Ukrainians are still living in hotels a month after arriving in Scotland, a committee of MSPs was told this week.
Yevhen Mankovskyi, the Ukrainian consul general in Edinburgh, thanked Scotland for its support as he appeared before Holyrood’s Europe Committee on Thursday but said he did not understand what was causing a “block” between those arriving being matched with hosts.
The data above does not include the number of visas issued through the Ukraine Family Scheme, which allows applicants to join family members or extend their stay in the UK.
The data has been published by the Home Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
The scheme allows Ukrainian nationals and their family members to come to the UK if they have a named sponsor.
Visas have been issued to local authorities based on the postcode of the sponsor’s address, or of the accommodation address if the applicant is not staying with the sponsor.
Not all records of visas have a postcode that has been mapped to a local authority area, but the number of records excluded is about 2%.
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