Ensuring the Resettling and Safeguarding of Refugees Fleeing the War in Ukraine

An estimated 12 million people have fled their homes since Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine began, according to the United Nations — resulting in one of the largest humanitarian catastrophes since the Second World War.

With countries in Europe and beyond stepping up to come to the assistance of Ukraine and those displaced, the UK government launched the Homes for Ukraine scheme, built on Palantir’s Foundry software, with the aim of providing safe passage and resettlement to refugees. The scheme received more than 120,000 offers to house Ukraine refugees in just 24 hours, and in total the British public offered more than 600,000 bed spaces to help home those displaced. Since its inception on 18th March 2022, the scheme has received more than 159,000 visa applications.

The Homes for Ukraine platform, powered by Foundry, has helped ensure the safe matching and resettlement of over 100,000 Ukraine refugees in the UK to date. More than 2,000 local authority case workers across all councils in England and Northern Ireland use the platform to manage the process end-to-end, drastically speeding up the time taken to get refugees safely accommodated with their sponsors and resettled in the UK.

Prioritising speed, safety and security

The huge influx of applications to the Homes for Ukraine scheme and the number of willing sponsors meant the UK Home Office, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and local authorities urgently needed a way to capture, process, analyse and act on vast amounts of data securely at speed, while prioritising the safety and wellbeing of refugees and sponsors.

Within just three days DLUHC was able to stand up an initial solution in Foundry to collect, secure and act on the data. Nine working days later, this Homes for Ukraine platform was the single source of truth and operational platform for local authorities and DLUHC. Capable of handling incoming data, integrating with existing systems in government departments and devolved administrations, and running the operational workflows for local authorities, the platform began supporting the safeguard of arrivals.

Data collection and collaboration during times of conflict

With all of the necessary data secure in one place, local authority users could then work on records, with Foundry offering the tools to de-duplicate or group visa applications into the right family units before carrying out safeguarding checks. This greatly decreases the likelihood of errors and speeds up the resettlement process. The visa application form and initial visa checks feed directly into Foundry from the Home Office, allowing local authority case workers to record necessary background checks prior to refugees arriving in the UK, without ever leaving the platform.

DLUHC and local authorities use Foundry to collate, clean, secure and merge data from disparate incoming sources — from Home Office visa applications, to Border Force arrivals data, to Expression of Interest (EOI) forms from the public — creating one single pane of glass through which officials and case workers can effectively manage and ensure the safe resettling of refugees.

The success of the scheme and the flexibility of its technical implementation means that both policy and software can be extended hand in hand to cover arrivals by unaccompanied minors. This is possible thanks to the clean, reliable data from the vetting and background checking process, which is visible in Foundry. In cases where the initial matches of sponsor and applicant are unsuitable, or have to change, local authorities can find appropriate rematches from the bank of interested potential sponsors, increasing the speed and efficiency of the rematching process.

The impact so far:

• 100,000+ visa holders have arrived in the UK
• 159,000+ visa applications received, with 137,200 visas issued
• 2,000+ users across all local authorities in England & N. Ireland
• 190,000+ safeguarding checks logged in England & N. Ireland

Privacy and data governance at every level

Robust, granular security at every level of Foundry, coupled with purpose-based access controls (PBAC), ensures strict privacy and data governance: case workers can only see information they have been granted access to for a specific purpose, nothing more, nothing less.

All changes made to the data or checks recorded in the system are traceable and revertible, and local authorities can prioritise the safety of sponsors and refugees by easily keeping record of safeguarding checks. In cases where users suspect potential risks of criminal activity, these can be quickly flagged to the appropriate task force team who can escalate the matter to UK Visas & Immigration and Border Force.

Further supporting the scheme, local authorities and policy teams have been able to use the Homes for Ukraine platform to:

• Integrate with GOV.UK Notify to enable correspondence with members of the public, with DLUHC sending more than 200,000 emails.
• View dashboards and analytics of successes and areas of concern to support policy decisions.
• Support charity partners to manage applications with adverse hits and assist with rematching.

The Homes for Ukraine platform illustrates there does not need to be a tradeoff between speed, security, and safety when implementing the right technology to solve the most pressing global challenges. At Palantir, we’re incredibly proud to play our part in helping those greatly affected by the war in Ukraine, and will continue supporting mission-critical work where our software can be most impactful.

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Ensuring the Resettling and Safeguarding of Refugees Fleeing the War in Ukraine was originally published in Palantir Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.