In the first week of the Homes for Ukraine scheme, the British public showed more generosity towards refugees than the Home Office has shown in the past decade. And while we welcome this scheme, resettlement projects like this can only ever be one small strand of our refugee protection system.  The Government re-invents the wheel with a new scheme for each crisis; announcing bespoke visa routes as bombs struck Aleppo, as Kabul fell to the Taliban, and as Putin’s forces shell cities across Ukraine.  But the Homes for Ukraine scheme, like Afghan and Syrian resettlement schemes before it, is not a substitute for a fair, effective asylum system. 
A basic principle of refugee protection is this: a refugee is a refugee because they need protection – no matter how they travel to safety. This rule has existed for over 70 years, since the UK helped create the Refugee Convention in the aftermath of WWII. But under plans set out in the anti-refugee bill, the Governme…