WEST Devon Borough Council is closely following announcements made by the British government on the Syrian refugee crisis to see if they can offer any assistance.

So far it has been announced that Britain will resettle up to 20,000 Syrian refugees. These refugees will be taken from the camps in the countries neighbouring Syria and assessed before being given official refugee status. A person with refugee status will then be granted a five year humanitarian protection visa, making them eligible to work in the UK and able to seek assistance from the local authority with benefits and housing.

A West Devon Borough Council spokesperson said: ‘We are very aware that this is likely to put additional pressures on our already stretched services and we are liaising with our partner organisations such as Devon County Council while we wait for more information to come from central government about how a scheme for resettling Syrian refugees will be run and funded.’

At this point, the government is not anticipating the need for residents to accommodate Syrian refugees in their own homes.

However, if you would like to offer any form of help or support or to find out what you can do to help, please call the Red Cross’s dedicated phone line on 0800 107 8727 for more information.