False: The U.K. Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities (DLUHC) requested all hosts sheltering Ukrainian migrants to report adult males to the Ukrainian Embassy.

By: Annet Preethi Furtado
February 9 2023

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Context

An image of a letter purported to be from a United Kingdom government body, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities (DLUHC), to residents hosting Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine as part of the U.K. government scheme "Homes for Ukraine" has been widely shared on social media. The letter in the posts is dated January 30, 2023, and it has the signature of DLUHC Minister Michael Gove, the department's official letterhead, and the office address.

The letter states that it is a notification from the DLUHC in connection with Ukraine Embassy's inquiry and requests that sponsors hosting refugees provide specified information about them. The required information includes whether the sponsor accommodates Ukrainian refugees and whether any are male refugees 18 years of age and above. The letter also asks hosts to report the current whereabouts of any Ukrainian men aged 18 and above who left the house and warned that failure to persuade the refugees to visit Ukraine Embassy to update their data physically could result in a reduced financial incentive for the sponsor. 

This purported letter received 90,300 views in one Twitter post with the caption: "UKRAINE SEARCHING FOR MILITARY AGED MEN INSIDE BRITAIN." Another social media user shared the letter questioning how Michael Grove is spending taxpayer's money. The alleged letter was also shared on Facebook.

In Fact

The Homes for Ukraine scheme in the U.K. has allowed civilians to welcome, host, and provide accommodation for Ukrainian refugees since March 2022. Through the Homes for Ukraine program, those in the U.K. who meet the requirements outlined by the DLUHC can accommodate Ukrainian refugees. This initiative, which DLUHC sponsors, compensates hosts who accept refugees from war-torn Ukraine with payments of at least £350 per month for a maximum of two years. The government raises the payments to £500 per month once a refugee has resided with the host for a year. Over 100,000 Ukrainian refugees are now living in the U.K. owing to this plan, the website for the scheme says.

We noticed that the letter, which requests that hosts provide specific details about Ukrainian refugees, had poor grammar and incorrect usage of words such as "precising," and spelling mistakes, such as "governmen" instead of "government." Incorrect spellings and poor grammar in such correspondence indicate that it may not be an official communication sent by a U.K. government body.

Logically contacted the DLUHC for clarification regarding the purported letter. In response, DLUHC stated that it was aware that fraudulent letters relating to Homes for Ukraine hosts were circulating on social media. It specified that the alleged letter was ''not from the Department.'' Further, it stated that information about Homes for Ukraine's data collection and storage policies could be found on the official site. DLUHC posted the same clarification on its official Twitter account on February 6, 2023.

The Verdict

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities clarified to Logically that the purported letter asking hosts of Ukrainian refugees in the U.K. to notify the government about adult Ukrainian men is a fake. The department, via Twitter, has also warned that fraudulent letters to Homes for Ukraine program sponsors are circulating on social media. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.