BALADI NEWS
The UK Government stands to make up to £5 million in profit by charging children who have escaped from violence and terror in Syria for British citizenship applications.
Some 8,789 minors arrived in the UK between 2014 and the first three months of 2019 under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) and the Vulnerable Children Scheme (VCS).
Starting from next year, they could apply to register as British, but face a £1,012 fee to do so, setting up a potentially massive windfall for the Home Office.
Through VPRS, the Home Office worked “with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to identify those most at risk and bring them to the UK”, and to help “those in the greatest need”.
But now the Home Office stands to profit off them. Each application costs the department £372, meaning it makes £640 in profit for every child that register.
If every Syrian child relocated under VPRS and VCS applies, the Home Office could stand to make £5,624,960 in the next few years, according to an analysis by the International Observatory of Human Rights (IOHR).
Source: The Independent.