Moray Councillor hails government scheme to help Ukrainian refugees
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A MORAY councillor has welcomed a UK government sponsorship scheme offering Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion a route to safety.
Councillor Marc Macrae (Conservative, Fochabers-Lhanbryde) said many people had been in touch with him eager to find out how they can help those within the war-torn country and those who have fled the war to neighbouring nations – currently estimated to be in the region of two million people by the United Nations.
He said: “My own ward of Fochabers-Lhanbryde is no stranger to helping in times of conflict when back in 1992 a local family helped foster 21 child refugees from Bosnia after seeing an advert in a newspaper.
“Whilst I would not encourage anyone to journey to the Ukraine to take up arms, please leave that to those best trained in the military to do so, there are however many other ways locals have been helping.
“There have been many collections already despatched off to Poland with clothing, foodstuffs, bedding, medical supplies etc with many more set to depart. In some cases charities have said that monetary donations to them can be more useful in such times, to ensure they get the most needed items to those in need timeously.
“A number of people have asked how they could go about offering temporary accommodation to refugees fleeing the Ukraine and the UK government will shortly be launching a new sponsorship scheme to make sure that Ukrainians who have been forced to flee their homes have a route to safety. The scheme will match people, charities, businesses and community groups to Ukrainians who do not have family ties to the UK.
“Details of the scheme and how you can apply will be published shortly by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, more information on the link below.”
For more information on this, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ukraine-what-you-can-do-to-help
The Government is also matching the first £20 million donated by the British public to the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, see https://donation.dec.org.uk/ukraine-humanitarian-appeal
