SEVERAL visas have been issued for Ukrainian refugees to stay with Dudley residents, new figures show.

The Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme, known as Homes for Ukraine, was announced in February by the Government, allowing citizens to volunteer to house refugees fleeing Ukraine.

Sponsors agree to offer accommodation for at least six months, with those receiving sponsorship allowed to live, work and study in the UK for up to three years.

Provisional data from the Home Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities shows six visas had been issued for refugees staying with hosts in Dudley as of Wednesday (April 6).

They were among the 12,500 sponsorship visas issued nationally by Thursday (April 7), though just 1,200 refugees – less than 10 per cent – had arrived in the UK through the scheme by April 5.

The Home Office and DLUHC cautioned that a small number of visas issued across the UK had no postcode linked to them, while the data is likely to include some duplicate records and therefore may not be an exact record of the number of people with visas.

Many others have received visas through the Ukraine Family Scheme, which allows Ukrainian nationals to join family members in the UK.

28,500 visas have been provided under the scheme nationally, of which 10,800 people had arrived by April 5.

Local data on this scheme has not yet been made available.

The Government has been criticised for not doing enough to help Ukrainian refugees compared to other European countries, with logistical difficulties causing a backlog in visa applications.

As of April 7, the Government had received nearly 80,000 visa applications for both schemes but had granted just 40,900.

The Home Office acknowledged some people have been waiting nearly three weeks for their application to be processed, but said it was working to speed up the process.