The influx will be “starting from next year, and for years to come” Javid said. The MP with the British Conservative Party, is himself the son of Pakistani Muslim immigrants.
He linked his tweet to a page on UK.gov which said one of the hopes of the “refugee” resettlement program is that it would “transform communities in the process”.
"The UK will resettle thousands more refugees starting from next year, and for years to come."
Home Secretary @sajidjavid has announced the details of the UK’s new refugee resettlement scheme that will start in 2020. #RefugeeWeek
Read more: https://t.co/Ijvg9aKLaE pic.twitter.com/8wlXI53SLs
— Home Office (@ukhomeoffice) June 17, 2019
The responses on Twitter were overwhelmingly negative to the new scheme which is set to start in 2020.
The UK will aim to resettle asylum seekers at current levels, adding to the nearly 16 000 who have already been admitted since 2015 under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme and the many other “thousands resettled” the website stated.
According to Javid, “Britain has resettled more refugees from outside Europe than any other EU state” since 2016. “I’m proud of the world-leading work we have done in the Middle East and Africa so far – but there is so much more to do.”
Rossella Pagliuchi-Lor, UK Representative for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, welcomed the announcement: “We are delighted by this announcement from the UK, which is extending its commitment to offer international protection to a meaningful number of refugees from wherever the need is most acute.”
She said resettlement was a crucial component of international solidarity. “We hope this serves as a signal for other countries to provide more routes to safety for those forced to flee as the international community moves to make the Global Compact on refugees a reality.”
New analysis of OECD data by UNICEF has already revealed that Britain is one of the countries with the least family-friendly policies.
Statista’s Martin Armstrong noted that at the top of the overall ranking, Sweden has the highest average ranking when considering the following indicators: paid parental leave available to mothers, paid parental leave reserved for fathers, childcare enrollment (under 3) and childcare enrollment (3 to school age).
The United Kingdom however, is among the least family-friendly countries in Europe according to these measures, with an average ranking among the 31 countries of 26,75.
Over 68,5 million people around the world have set out on migratory routes. At least 25,4 million are asylum seekers, and over half of them are under the age of 18. The UNCHR reiterated its committment to the global resettlement scheme.
But existing evidence clearly shows that levels of opposition to immigration in the UK are high. Those who favour of reducing the number of immigrants coming to Britain is 58 percent – one third say “reduce a lot” and a further 25 percent say “reduce a little”.
A further 30 percent would prefer the number of immigrants to stay about the same, and those favouring an increase are but a small minority, the Migration Observatory poll revealed.
It is worth noting that British voters also make clear distinctions between types of migrant with the highly skilled preferred to the unskilled, and those from culturally close countries (such as Australia) preferred over those from countries perceived to be more culturally distant (such as Nigeria).
Immigration concerns were named as Britain’s “most important issue” between 2001 and mid-2016.