– Mark, Community Sponsorship group member
Understanding migration status is the starting point for understanding migration in the UK.
Who is an asylum seeker?
An asylum seeker is a person who has left their country and is seeking protection from persecution and serious human rights violations in another country, but who hasn’t yet been legally recognized as a refugee and is waiting to receive a decision on their asylum claim.
Who is a refugee?
Refugees are people forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as a result of who they are, what they believe in or say, or because of armed conflict, violence or serious public disorder.
Who is an asylum seeker?
A person who leaves their country of origin purely for economic reasons that are not in any way related to the refugee definition, in order to seek material improvements in their livelihood.
Let’s look at the stats.
As of the end of June 2025, there were 117.3 million people who had been forced to flee their homes due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order. Among them, there are 42.5 million refugees. 67.8 million were displaced within their home country, and 8.42 million asylum seekers.
69% of the world’s refugees come from only 5 countries: Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela, Ukraine, and South Sudan. The majority of refugees seek refuge in countries neighbouring their countries of origin.
What safe routes are available for refugees to come to the UK?
UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS)
The global resettlement scheme is open to vulnerable refugees around the world. Individuals are assessed and referred by the UNHCR according to their criteria, based on people’s needs and vulnerabilities.
Community Sponsorship
A community-led approach allowing local groups—such as faith communities, schools, neighbourhood organisations, or friends and neighbours—to come together and welcome a refugee family or individual to the UK.
Mandate Resettlement Scheme
Launched in 1995, this global scheme resettles refugees who have a close family member in the UK willing to accommodate them. Since 2008, 441 individuals have been resettled through this scheme (as of December 2022).
Communities for Afghans
A sponsorship scheme for individuals from the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP), designed to quickly deliver safe, affordable homes based on a community sponsorship model.
Ukraine Visa Schemes
In response to the invasion of Ukraine, the UK launched one of the fastest visa schemes in UK history, including:
Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas)
Launched on 31 January 2021 in response to China’s National Security Law, which significantly impacts the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong.
How do refugees arrive to the UK through the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS)?
The UK Government relies on UNHCR to help them identify and process vulnerable refugees who would benefit from resettlement.
They will:
UNHCR will conduct interviews with the family as they are mandated to determine whether an individual meets the 1951 Convention definition of a refugee and are best placed to assess their protection needs. Having determined that the individual is a refugee, UNHCR will then consider whether resettlement is the right long-term solution for them, and to which country or resettlement scheme they should be referred. Refugees do not decide which country they are referred to, rather UNHCR looks at available quotas and decides which country criteria the family best fits.
Refugees are assessed for resettlement by UNHCR against the following resettlement submission categories: legal and/or physical protection needs, women and girls at risk, children and adolescents at risk, survivors of violence and/or torture, medical needs, restoring family unity, lack of forseeable alternative durable solutions.
If UNHCR consider that an individual should be referred to the UK for resettlement, they will send a Refugee Resettlement Form (RRF), confirming the individual has been determined by UNHCR to be a refugee, to the Home Office. The Home Office then determine whether the case should be accepted for resettlement to the UK.
Once the individual/family is accepted and agrees to be resettled to the UK, they will undergo medical checks and three days of cultural orientation classes with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
In Community Sponsorship, once the Home Office allocates the family to your group, and you and your Local Authority accepts the allocation, exit procedures from the host country will begin and flights will be booked. The family will have about six to eight weeks from learning they will come to your community to flying to the UK, where you will pick them up from the airport.
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Click on the links below to continue learning about migration in the UK through our partner organisations.
Click on the images below to stay up to date with these recently released reports.
Together with Refugees on Welcoming Growth: The economic case for a fair and humane asylum system
British Red Cross’s Planning for Tomorrow, Lessons learned from the UK’s response to displacement from Ukraine.
Migration Observatory on The Labour Market Effects of Immigration
University of Birmingham’s Public attitudes to refugee sponsorship in the UK
Read all news and insight from our initiatives
See coverage of Reset UK in the press and media
Find out how Community Sponsorship helps refugee families in need build a new life in the UK with confidence and dignity.
Make an extraordinary difference to the lives of people who have lost everything by signing up to our (free) Landlords for Refugees register.
Not everyone can donate their time, so if you are choosing to donate money today instead or as well as, thank you. Your generosity is vital to the work we do support community-led welcome of refugees.
Help others by sharing your account. Why were you attracted to community-led welcome? What worked, what did you learn, what has the experience been like for you?
Reset empowers volunteers to welcome refugees into communities across the UK. Find out about us and the kinds of programmes we’ve been involved with.
Research, monitoring and evaluation are essential for making evidence-based decisions that will support Community Sponsorship to grow and flourish.
Sponsoring a refugee family is a significant responsibility. We advocate for Community Sponsors to ensure that they are properly supported throughout their journey.
Our advocacy focuses on representing the views of Community Sponsors to the Home Office to support them in implementing the necessary operational changes.
We also represent the views of Community Sponsors to other key stakeholders, including Local Authorities, international organisations, the wider resettlement field, housing providers and financial institutions. We also use our voice to campaign on policies affecting refugees. We are members of the Together With Refugees coalition, campaigning for a more humane approach to people seeking protection in the UK.
