Government almost halfway to 2020 target of resettling 20,000 Syrian refugees

Nearly 10,000 Syrian refugees have now been resettled in the UK, new figures show.

It means the Government is almost halfway towards its target of resettling 20,000 people from the Syrian region by 2020.

Some 9,394 people have so far been welcomed to Britain under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS).

One in five (20%) have been resettled in Scotland, the highest proportion for any nation and region of the UK.

Local authorities in Yorkshire & the Humber have accepted 12%, while councils in the West Midlands have taken 9%.

But the pace at which refugees are being resettled has slowed.

A total of 859 people were granted refugee status between July and September 2017, according to figures from the Home Office.

This is down from 1,228 between April and June 2017, and 1,601 between January and March 2017.

The VPRS has been running since January 2014 and local authorities around the UK take part on a voluntary basis.

In the year to September 2017, 229 different local authorities accepted refugees under the scheme.

The first year 12 months of a refugee's resettlement costs are funded by the UK Government using the overseas aid budget.