Hundreds of Ukrainians will be offered accommodation on a disused cruise ship in Scotland as Scottish National Party ministers pause the “super sponsor” scheme because of a lack of housing.
Refugees fleeing their homeland after the invasion by Russia faced sleeping on camp beds in public buildings unless drastic action was taken, ministers warned.
The passenger ship the MS Victoria will be docked in Leith, Edinburgh, to provide 739 rooms, equivalent to about 10 per cent of the 7,000 Ukrainians who have fled to Scotland.
Two-thirds of these people applied under the super sponsor scheme, launched in March, after the Scottish government committed to accommodate at least 3,000 people.
In addition, North Lanarkshire Council announced plans to refurbish 200 unused council tower block properties, funded by £5 million ($5.9m) from the Scottish government, to provide longer-term accommodation.
Scotland's largest social landlord, the Wheatley Housing Group, has also pledged to make 300 homes available to local authorities to house displaced people from Ukraine.
Although the Scottish government has "paused" the scheme for three months, an official document suggests longer-term issues.
The paper said it had been hoped that “the crisis in Ukraine would prove temporary and that a peace agreement could swiftly be reached” — despite widespread warnings about Vladimir Putin’s unwillingness to back down on the invasion.
Scotland’s temporary accommodation sector is at capacity, the document confirmed. It added: “If numbers continue at this level, local authorities may find themselves having to house displaced people, including families, in emergency contingency accommodation such as camp beds in community settings.
“While contingency accommodation is a necessary part of local councils’ crisis response to short-term emergencies, such as fires and flooding, it is not a sustainable solution for protracted emergencies like the war in Ukraine.”
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Ukrainian servicemen in a shelter at the frontline near Kharkiv. AP -
A Ukrainian and his puppy in the Donetsk region. AP -
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, third left, is shown apartment buildings damaged by Russian shelling during his visit to Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP -
Rescue specialists work at the site of a destroyed residential building after blasts in Belgorod, Russia. Reuters -
A woman lays flowers during a demonstration against the invasion of Ukraine in front of the Palais des Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland. EPA -
A woman injured when her house was damaged by the Russian shelling sits in the yard of her house, in Bakhmut, Ukraine. AP -
Local residents stand next to a damaged residential building in the town of Serhiivka, about 50 kilometres south-west of Odesa, Ukraine. AP -
Viktor Shevchenko stands in a crater to show its depth after a Russian shelling in the Saltivka district in Kharkiv. AP -
An image taken from a video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office purports to show the moment a missile struck the shopping mall in Kremenchuk. AP -
People watch as smoke rises after a Russian missile strike hit a crowded shopping mall, in Kremenchuk. AP -
Firefighters clean the rubble of the destroyed Amstor shopping mall in Kremenchuk. EPA -
A woman cries after the body of her husband, who was killed in the yard of an apartment building during shelling, was loaded into an ambulance in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP -
Firefighters and rescue workers at the destroyed Amstor shopping mall. EPA -
Rescuers work at the site of a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike, in Kremenchuk. Reuters -
A couple wounded by a Russian missile strike hold hands in a hospital, in Kremenchuk. Reuters -
People wait to receive humanitarian aid in front of a residential building damaged during a Russian attack in Borodyanka, Ukraine. EPA -
Ukrainian servicemen take a bus to their positions near Severodonetsk, in Luhansk area. EPA -
A Ukrainian service member and a dog in the industrial area of the city of Severodonetsk. Reuters -
A couple sits in front of a residential building that was damaged during a Russian attack, in Borodyanka. EPA -
Local residents receive humanitarian aid in Borodyanka. EPA -
A Ukrainian armed forces tank in Severodonetsk. Reuters -
Ukrainian service members walk past a damaged car in Severodonetsk. Reuters -
A giant Ukrainian flag is held up during the benefit concert 'Embrace Ukraine' on the Museumplein in Amsterdam. The free event will raise money for victims of the war in Ukraine and the purchase of mobile X-ray equipment that the country needs. EPA -
A fire from a gas processing plant continues to burn behind a field of wheat after it was hit by shelling a few days earlier in Andriivka, in the Kharkiv region. Reuters -
An onlooker takes in the damage from overnight shelling on Kharkiv's Housing and Communal College. Reuters -
A destroyed tank in the village of Novoselivka, outside Chernigiv. AFP -
A man decorates a toy cabin for children made from used ammunition crates in the village of Novoselivka, outside Chernigiv. AFP -
An internal view of the Housing and Communal College building damaged by recent shelling in Kharkiv. EPA
Wales announced it was pausing its scheme for a month at the start of June, but later decided on an indefinite extension of that decision. Scotland’s three-month pause will begin at 9am on Wednesday and will not affect anyone who has already made an application or had their visa granted.
In a joint letter sent in March, Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford, the Scottish and Welsh first ministers, had said that there would be “no cap” on the number of people who could use the respective schemes.
“Placing families into accommodation that was due for demolition and an old cruise liner that was probably for scrap is in no way the proper and humane way to treat refugees,” said Gary Gray, co-founder of volunteer group ScotHosts, which was set up to support arriving refugees and their Scottish hosts.
He said that a month ago he became “disgusted by the shoddy way that everyone in authority was handling it” and predicted that the scheme would have to be paused. He therefore stepped back from having anything to do with the Scottish government’s programme.
More than 21,256 visas had been issued naming a Scottish sponsor, which is more than 20 per cent of the UK total and the highest number per head of population across Britain and Northern Ireland, said the government.
Neil Gray, the Scottish minister with special responsibility for Ukrainian refugees, has asked Lord Harrington, the UK minister for refugees, whether the British government will consider introducing its own super sponsor arrangements.
“With a recent decrease in people applying for private sponsorship in England, and Wales having paused their own scheme, the number of applications naming the Scottish government as sponsor has increased considerably in recent weeks,” Mr Gray said.
“For this reason, we have taken the incredibly difficult decision to follow Wales in pausing our scheme so we can continue to provide a high level of support and care to everyone who has already been granted a visa.”
Mr Gray said that the position would be reviewed in three months but could be brought forward “if circumstances change”.
