The Home Office announced on 28 September 2026 that the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, had reopened the UK Resettlement Scheme to new referrals. The department said around 1 in 4 referrals would be for Afghan women and girls and Palestinian refugees, working with the UN Refugee Agency and the International Refugee Assistance Project. Referrals were to reopen immediately, with first arrivals expected before the end of that year.

The announcement also set out plans for three community sponsorship routes. Charities and non-profits were to be able to apply in October 2026 to sponsor refugees and refugee students, with first arrivals expected in autumn 2027. Applications for work sponsorship sponsors were planned for spring 2027. The government said it expected total arrivals across the scheme and the new routes to number in the hundreds at first, rising to the low thousands, with a cap set each year and a 5-year path to permanent settlement.