A charter plane of Syrian refugees will arrive at Glasgow Airport next week as the government launches the latest phase of its vulnerable person relocation scheme (VPR).
The special charter flight, which will land in Glasgow on Tuesday 17 November, is to be the first in a series of flights arriving in the UK over the next few weeks with hundreds more Syrians expected in the months ahead.
The refugees will be housed throughout UK with the help of local authorities which have given their support to the plans.
The Home Office has confirmed offers from 17 authorities in Scotland who are committed to taking in refugees before Christmas.
Richard Harrington, UK Government Minister for Syrian Refugees said: “We are well on our way to meeting the Prime Minister’s pledge of 1,000 arrivals from the region by Christmas.
“It has taken a huge amount of effort and work to get to this point, involving many government departments, the UNHCR, local authorities the length and breadth of the United Kingdom and others.
“Next week’s flight into Glasgow marks the beginning of a real step-change in the scheme as we upscale it to resettle 20,000 Syrians by the end of this Parliament and we look forward to welcoming and helping hundreds of people in the coming weeks.”
David Cameron announced on 7 September that the VPR scheme, which has been running since March 2014, would be expanded to resettle 20,000 Syrians throughout the term of this parliament.
There has been a great deal of arrivals since then, but the charter flights will see the most significant series of arrivals to date.
The Home Secretary announced in September, that the government will create a register of people who have expressed a desire to provide housing for refugees and develop a community sponsorship scheme, similar to those used in Canada and Australia, to allow individuals, charities, faith groups, churches and businesses to support people directly.
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