Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians poised to enter UK, says minister

Britain could welcome hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing Ukraine in the next few weeks, health secretary Sajid Javid has said, as refugee charities warned the bureaucracy involved in securing visas was forcing people to wait in dangerous situations.

Mr Javid said the UK had already issued 9,500 visas to Ukrainians with family ties to the UK, while 150,000 people had expressed an interest in hosting refugees through the Homes for Ukraine programme.

“I’m pleased that we are supporting Ukraine in every single way that we can, whether that’s military aid, humanitarian aid or indeed providing sanctuary for those who are fleeing Ukraine,” he told radio station LBC. “I expect that we will see hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians arrive here in the UK, and they will get all the support that they need.”

But refugee-hosting charities expressed concern about the obstacles posed by the visa application process.

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Refugees at Home executive director Lauren Scott said: "We're hearing that the visa applications are quite long and difficult to complete, particularly for people who have had to flee their homes and don't necessarily have access to internet and to the necessary paperwork.

“Many of those fleeing are older people who may not be proficient on the internet, or have smartphones. These are people fleeing war and persecution and we’d like to see existing refugee legislation be used to cover them instead, and the visa requirement waived.”

Ruth McMenamin, who is on sabbatical from her job as a travel company marketing head and has been volunteering at a Warsaw station for the past nine days, agreed. "People are exhausted, they don't have great English, they're not leaving their homes with laptops," she said. One of the first Ukrainian families hoping to go to the UK after fleeing the war-torn city of Kharkiv said they had experienced multiple problems with the government's Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Paperwork

Olha Haponenko, a university academic, and her nine-year-old son, Petro Syvovol, were hoping to go to the UK after completing the sponsorship paperwork.

They linked up with the UK sponsors Nicki and Adam Patrick, who live in Wiltshire with their 10-year-old daughter, through personal connections.

Both families thought they had filled out all the forms correctly. Ms Haponenko was given an appointment at the UK’s Paris visa-processing centre on Friday because Petro’s Ukrainian passport had expired.

Ms Haponenko said she was shocked to receive an automated response to her application saying visa applications were taking 60 working days to process. The message said: “You will NOT hear from this office again UNLESS we require any additional information from you…”

Home Office sources told the Guardian the email had been sent in error and that the issue was being looked at as a matter of urgency. – Guardian