London, March 15 : The website for registering interest in UK’s new scheme crashed for a short while as over 100,000 people offered homes to Ukrainian refugees. According to The Guardian, by 9 am (local time) on Tuesday, 88,712 had joined the scheme that allows families and individuals to bring them to the UK. Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Comm ties tweeted: “Thanks to the generosity of the British public we’ve received over 100K expressions of interest from individuals and organisations so far in our Homes for Ukraine scheme.” Foreign Office minister James Cleverly said “10,000 people every hour” were signing up. The Guardian quoted a spokesperson as saying that the Homes for Ukraine website “temporarily stalled” after it went live late on Monday afternoon, owing to the “enormous generosity of the British public”. He said the total number of offers was continuing to rise, with offers doubling within hours. Cleverly said, “Frankly, I’m glad we moved quickly on this and we’re moving quickly to ensure we’re able to help the Ukrainian refugees. “I know this is a weird thing to say as a government minister – I’m glad the website crashed, because it is a reflection of that generosity of the British people.” Almost 3 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion. As per the earlier law, only Ukrainians with family links to the UK could apply for visas that would give them access to work and benefits. On Monday, the levelling up secretary Michael Gove said that sponsors could bring any Ukrainian to the UK to live in their home for a minimum of six months, for which they would receive a £350 monthly payment. RNJ