Policy paper

Nationality and Borders Bill: Factsheet Safe and Legal Routes

Updated 13 October 2023

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  • Our New Plan for Immigration will strengthen the Government-backed routes available to those in need, so they don’t have to put their lives in the hands of people smugglers.
  • We have resettled over 25,000 refugees since 2015 – more than any other European country. Around half of those resettled were children.
  • Refugees coming here through resettlement schemes will be given the stability they need to properly rebuild their lives in the UK, by being granted indefinite leave to remain on arrival.
  • Refugees coming to the UK through safe and legal routes will also be given more support to thrive in local communities. The Government is providing funding for English language classes, help with finding a job and building links with the local community.

UK Resettlement Scheme

  • The UK Resettlement Scheme commenced in February 2021 and prioritises the resettlement of refugees, including children, in regions of conflict and instability.
  • It’s a global scheme – and expands the geographical focus of the UK’s efforts beyond the Middle East and North Africa to continue to offer safe and legal routes to the UK for the most vulnerable refugees around the world.
  • The number of refugees we resettle every year depends on a variety of factors including local authorities’ capacity for supporting refugees and the number of community groups willing to take part.

Community Sponsorship Scheme

  • Community Sponsorship enables local community groups to welcome refugees to the UK and provide housing and support.
  • Community sponsor groups need to demonstrate that they have suitable plans and resources in place to support a refugee or family.
  • In September 2021, the Government extended the Community Sponsorship Scheme to enable communities to welcome and support people resettled to the UK through their eligibility for the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme.

Mandate Resettlement Scheme

  • The Mandate Scheme, launched in 1995, is a global scheme that resettles refugees who have a close family member in the UK who is willing to accommodate them.

Refugee Family Reunion

  • The Government’s family reunion policy allows a spouse/partner and children under 18 of those granted protection in the UK to join them here, if they formed part of the family unit before the sponsor fled their country.
  • There are separate provisions in the Immigration Rules to allow extended family to sponsor children to come here where there are serious and compelling circumstances. There is discretion to grant leave outside of the Immigration Rules which caters for extended family members in exceptional circumstances – including young adult sons or daughters who are dependent on family here and living in dangerous situations. Refugees can also sponsor adult dependent relatives living overseas to join them where, due to age, illness, or disability, that person requires long-term personal care that can only be provided by relatives in the UK.
  • We’ve granted over 39,000 Refugee Family Reunion visas since 2015.

Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme

  • In August 2021 we announced the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), one of the most generous schemes in our country’s history. This response to the situation in Afghanistan will give up to 20,000 people at risk a new life in the UK, through a safe and legal route.

  • The scheme will prioritise:

    • those who have assisted the UK efforts in Afghanistan and stood up for values such as democracy, women’s rights and freedom of speech, or rule of law (for example, judges, women’s rights activists, academics, and journalists); and
    • vulnerable people, including women and girls at risk, and members of minority groups at risk, including ethnic and religious minorities and LGBT.

Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy

  • The Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) launched on 1 April 2021. Under this policy, any current or former locally employed staff who are assessed to be under serious threat to life are offered priority relocation to the UK regardless of their employment status, rank or role, or length of time served.
  • Through this route we have relocated over 7,000 Locally Employed Staff and their family members from Afghanistan to the UK since April 2021; in addition to 1,400 former staff and families who were relocated between 2013 and March 2021 under the previous ex-gratia scheme for Afghan interpreters.

Immigration Route for British National (Overseas) status holders from Hong Kong

  • On 31 January, the UK launched an immigration route for British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) status holders and their immediate family members following China’s passing of the National Security Law in Hong Kong.
  • This route reflects the UK’s historic and moral commitment to those people of Hong Kong who chose to retain their ties to the UK by taking up BN(O) status at the point of Hong Kong’s handover to China in 1997, and provides them and their family members the opportunity to live, work and study in the UK, on a pathway to settlement.
  • There have already been 88,800 applications to the BN(O) route, 57,361 from those overseas.
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