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    31

    Aug 2021

    Last Updated: 31/08/2021
    Community
    Community

    Bid to resettle refugees in Nidderdale takes major step forward

    by Tim Flanagan

    | 31 Aug, 2021
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    Nidderdale Community Welcome, a community group set up to sponsor a refugee family in Nidderdale, has found a house and raised more than £12,000 towards the initiative.

    afghanrefugees
    Refugees boarded planes from Kabul in the middle of the night. Picture: Ministry of Defence.

    Attempts to resettle a refugee family in the Pateley Bridge area have taken a significant step forward.

    Nidderdale Community Welcome, a community group set up to sponsor a refugee family in Nidderdale, has found a house and raised more than £12,000.

    Peter Wright, who heads the organisation, said:

    "We can expect a refugee family to be selected by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and for the family to be with us in about four months time."


    With funding and housing in place, the application to bring the family to the Dales now needs Home Office approval, which should be a formality.

    In preparation for the resettlement, Nidderdale Community Welcome is to hold a meeting at Pateley Bridge Methodist Church between 7pm and 9pm on Tuesday next week. For further details email wrightpandh@gmail.com



    Mr Wright said:

    "We are now moving from the planning to the implementation stage and need to put together small teams to assist the family with benefits, schooling, language, etc.
    "The meeting will allow people to hear what is involved and to help us by signing on to one or more of the teams."


    The steering group is also looking at the possibility of establishing a community investment scheme to purchase a house for the longer term of this project.

    People able to invest between £5,000 and £40,000 in a fixed-term scheme with an anticipated return of two percent per annum would have a proportionate share in the capital of the house.

    John Tarrant, treasurer of Nidderdale Community Welcome, can be contacted at johntarrant@leakhb.plus.com  for further information.



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    Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the refugee focus has switched from those displaced by war in Syria to Afghan nationals fleeing their country.

    While Nidderdale Community Welcome, which was set up in November, plans for its first refugee family, Ripon City of Sanctuary has already resettled a number of Syrian families and is ready for another.

    The group, established in 2016, has been fundraising since April, in anticipation of bringing another Syrian family to the city.

    It has raised 85 per cent of the money needed and a has identified a suitable house.

    Nicola David, chair of the Ripon group, said:

    “We have been trying to build a little Syrian community here.
    “Some Afghan interpreter families are currently being assisted to resettle in the UK, and a very small number have arrived in the Harrogate district.”