UK Scheme Puts Ukrainian Women In Danger, Says UN

The UK government must do more to prevent Ukrainian women and children fleeing war from being matched with single British men under the sponsorship scheme or risk placing refugees in danger, the UN has said.

- May Bulman

Following reports that refugee women have been targeted on social media by predatory men offering them rooms in their homes, the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) has called on Britain to introduce a "more appropriate matching process" as part of the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

The visa route, which was launched on 18 March, allows Ukrainians with no family links to come to Britain and be hosted by members of the public, who are paid £350 per month for doing so. More than 200,000 people have registered their interest in hosting.

Refugees must find their own hosts under the scheme, which levelling up secretary Michael Gove said last month he hoped they would be able to do using social media. Swathes of Facebook pages were subsequently set up, designed to “match” refugees with hosts, and Ukrainian women started to “advertise” themselves in pursuit of finding a home.

Leading charities warned that this was causing “a lot of issues” and described the approach as “a Tinder for people traffickers”.