We have been supporting refugees in Cambridge since 2015.

We know that our residents are particularly supportive of people who have left everything behind to seek safety. In 2022, hundreds opened their homes to enable people to leave Ukraine when the war broke out. As a council, we are proudly a City of Sanctuary.

There are a number of pathways through which people can currently seek refuge in the UK.

Government resettlement schemes

The Government resettlement schemes that are running in the UK are:

• United Kingdom Resettlement Scheme (UKRS) - established in 2021
• Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) - established in 2021
• Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) - established in 2022

People arriving from countries like Syria and Afghanistan through these schemes are provided support by local councils, with funding for this work coming from central government.

We support these families to establish new lives in and around Cambridge, working closely with local community groups and voluntary organisations, and through our dedicated resettlement team of family support workers. Our family support workers are all multilingual, and help families in all aspects of resettling, such as:

• making Universal Credit applications to ensure the right benefits can be accessed
• helping families apply for school places for children
• registering families with GPs and assisting them to obtain appointment and accessing health services
• providing English language learning support
• working with the families to open bank accounts and pay bills
• access to wellbeing activities
• support looking for and gaining employment

Homes

Despite these formal resettlement schemes establishing the route by which people fleeing Syria or Afghanistan can move to the UK, individuals and families rely on offers of housing being made before they can enter the UK. Eligible refugees may often have to live in refugee camps until an offer of a home is made.

In 2020, in response to a petition from local residents, we and South Cambridgeshire District Council committed to supporting 200 refugees to settle in Greater Cambridge.  

In 2021, we said we would provide four council houses each year for the next five years to help reach that target. We have been able to access funding from the Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF) – which was set up to enable the purchase of new homes for refugees – to buy new homes for this purpose, while increasing our overall council housing stock for the future.

Homes for Ukraine scheme

The government created the Homes for Ukraine scheme in 2022. This relied on households offering to share their homes with people from Ukraine. Under this scheme, hundreds of Cambridge residents offered their spare rooms or empty homes to support people arriving from Ukraine. 

While people from Ukraine are moving into their host accommodation, our role is to support them to feel welcome and get to know Cambridge. We offer practical support to refugees and their hosts, and conduct accommodation and safeguarding checks and administer financial support. We also offer advice and award grants to the voluntary sector to provide support to refugees from Ukraine.

Many of the refugees from Ukraine who arrived over the past few years will now have moved out of their hosts’ accommodation. We provide support to find suitable accommodation locally, whether by accessing private rented accommodation or housing association homes, or access to our LAHF funded council homes.

Since March 2022, we have helped almost 600 refugees to settle in Cambridge.

Find out more about our support for Ukraine.

People seeking asylum

People seeking asylum in the UK who are not part of one of the schemes mentioned above often have a long wait, within the UK, for a decision on their asylum claim.

Some people seeking asylum may have family or friends they can stay with whilst a decision is being made. Other people will require accommodation. This is managed by the Home Office, with the Home Office having contracted Serco to procure and manage this accommodation in Cambridgeshire. Serco has not secured any accommodation in Cambridge for people seeking asylum.

Support and advice service

In recent years we have commissioned the Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum to help refugee and asylum seekers to access practical advice and support to settle in Cambridge.

This service is open to all who are living/working in Cambridge, to ensure everyone can access free, independent advice from a qualified adviser (IAA Immigration Advice Authority). Also, there are schemes to help refugees and asylum seekers to access employment skills through various funded services.

We are currently out to tender to procure this service.

Find out more about support for refugees in Cambridge.

How local people can help

To offer your support, find out how to help refugees who have come to the UK.

Local people can apply for community sponsorship, through which community groups can support refugees’ resettlement.

With this sponsorship, refugees can stay in the UK for five years. During this time, they will have the right to work, claim relevant benefits, access the NHS and attend school. After five years the resettled family can apply to extend their stay.

Fostering

One of the priority groups is likely to be unaccompanied children and young people. The county council will consider providing fostering arrangements and encourages anyone interested in offering support in this way to find out more information. 

• Fostering and adoption [Cambridgeshire County Council]
• Freephone 0800 052 0078