Ukrainian refugees want to ‘make Borders their home’

A number of Ukrainian refugees staying at hotels in Peebleshire are eager to make the county a permanent ‘home away from home’, it has emerged.
Some refugees have been staying at the MacDonald Cardrona Hotel.Some refugees have been staying at the MacDonald Cardrona Hotel.
Some refugees have been staying at the MacDonald Cardrona Hotel.

A number of Ukrainian refugees staying at hotels in Peebleshire are eager to make the county a permanent ‘home away from home’, it has emerged.

Support is also being made available to enable the refugees who have fled their war-torn country to access educational courses, Universal Credit and other benefits.

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Some have expressed the desire to remain in the Borders on a permanent basis.

Realising that wish will inevitably place additional demand on housing stock in the locality, members of Tweeddale Area Partnership were informed this week.

The 99-room Cardona Hotel, beside the A72, welcomed its first group of refugees this summer and others have been housed at Peebles Hydro on Innerleithen Road.

The refugees have been placed in the hotels on a temporary basis by the Scottish Government until they are matched to a host family or moved on to other accommodation.

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Peebles & District Citizens Advice Bureau is also doing its bit to ensure refugees are integrated into the community.

Service manager Gill Westwood told the meeting: “We produce leaflets in Ukrainian which I think has allowed people to do an awful lot of self-help. We got a leaflet on applying for Universal Credit in Ukrainian and I think people have been able to do a lot on their phones.

People are also getting a lot of help from the council, from the foodbank and from lots of places. I’ve spent quite a bit of time translating things into Ukrainian with a friend who speaks Ukrainian, which has been really handy.”

Tweeddale East Ward’s Councillor Julie Pirone said: “I’ve been doing quite a lot of work with both of the hotels in Tweeddale and we have council staff full time in the hotels who are helping them with the Universal Credit and other credits that they can get, and funding for going to college and things like that as well as some health help.

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“I’d ask the Citizens Advice Bureau to keep doing their leaflets in Ukrainian because we are trying very hard to make sure that we can integrate them into the community. When I was there on Friday many of them said they wanted to stay in Tweeddale and we will have an issue about whether we have enough housing for everybody, we have an issue with that anyway with our own populations, but the more they can read in Ukrainian the more they know that someone is going to help them.

“The more that is translated into Ukrainian the more they can become involved in local events.”