Shabana Mahmood, the UK Home Secretary, is set to announce a new legal resettlement route for refugees, with Afghan and Palestinian women and girls given priority.
The Guardian reported on Sunday night, September 27, that the UK Home Office will introduce the measure following the closure last year of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme.
According to the report, the move will reactivate a scheme that placed the most vulnerable refugees on an expedited pathway to permanent resettlement.
The UK Home Office expects Afghan women and girls and Palestinian refugees to make up about one-quarter of those accepted under the scheme.
New applications to the scheme were suspended two years ago, and only a very small number of people had benefited from it up to that point.
However, the UK Home Secretary is expected to announce that the scheme will reopen immediately, with priority given to people with disabilities and women and girls identified as vulnerable.
