On 7 September 2015, the Prime Minister announced a significant extension of the scheme. The UK is now planning to resettle up to 20,000 refugees from the Syrian region over the next five years. The Government is working out the logistics of the extended scheme with local authorities and the voluntary sector. The Government also announced, on 28 January 2016, that it would work with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to lead a new initiative to resettle unaccompanied children from conflict regions. However, the Government does not intend to offer resettlement to refugees already in Europe, or to participate in the refugee relocation schemes being developed by the EU. It argues that it is better to take the most vulnerable refugees directly from the region.
