UKRAINE
A businessman has started a company to help Ukrainian refugees into work
It’s now six months since the Homes for Ukraine scheme launched in the UK, and in that time the number of refugees facing homelessness has increased steadily. Official figures released in September showed more than 1,500 Ukrainian refugee households required support from councils in England for homelessness between February 24 and August 26.
That could rise to as many as 50,000 next year, Barnardo’s has warned, with a quarter of the UK households who sponsored Ukrainian families telling the Office for National Statistics that they are not willing to continue the arrangement beyond six months.
Part of the problem comes down to cash, with Ukrainians struggling to find the work they need to become independent of their hosts.
Olly Tagg, 52, has come up with his own solution: setting up phone refurbishment firm Mobiles4Ukraine with the aim of employing Ukrainians to help them earn enough money to live independently.
The firm’s first employee is Maryna Yakubovska. The 40-year-old has been staying with Tagg after arrived in the UK alongside her children Nazar, 15, and Damian, 10, from the city of Irpin in March.
“The thing that worries me the most is Maryna and her two kids are completely dependent on us and, to a lesser extent, the state,” said Tagg, from Denton, Lincolnshire.
“We’re trying to provide employment at a reasonable salary level – around 25 grand – which would be sufficient for them
