The government acknowledged that problems with processing within the Interior Ministry had led to delays between approving visas for Ukrainian refugees and notifying them by email that visas had been issued, preventing many vulnerable people from making their way quickly to safety. .
Politicians from all parties pointed to a number of serious problems with the visa scheme for homes in Ukraine during an urgent question in the Municipality regarding the Ministry of Interior’s response to the refugee crisis.
The latest figures show that only one in five of the Homes for Ukraine visas issued has arrived in the UK. MEPs suggested that the relatively small number of travelers is due to the fact that visas are not issued to family units at the same time, and the approval of children’s visas often takes several weeks longer.
About 86,000 visas have been issued to people fleeing Ukraine under the two government refugee schemes in Ukraine (the Ukrainian Family Scheme and the Ukraine Home Scheme), but only 27,100 have traveled to the United Kingdom. Of the 51,300 visas issued under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, only 11,000 have actually arrived in the United Kingdom.
Home Secretary Kevin Foster dismissed as nonsense reports that there was a deliberate Home Office policy on withholding visas for children. “I am aware of the allegations that have been made, the false allegations that I must make that there is a deliberate move to detain individual visas. This is absolute nonsense, “he told the Commons.
But he acknowledged that there are bureaucratic problems, which mean that refugees do not immediately receive emails informing them that visas have been issued to them. “We are aware of a problem with the way the current system works in terms of decision-making and then it has to be sent,” he said.
It has been clear for several weeks that there have been serious delays between obtaining visas and receiving emails from refugees authorizing them to travel. This is understood as a result of delays in the work process between two separate teams of civil servants, with one group responsible for visa decisions and another group based elsewhere responsible for communicating these decisions.
Foster said there was a separate team working to “ensure dispatch”, but said the government was working to create a “fully online” automated system next month that would “solve this particular problem”.
Shadow Home Secretary Stephen Kinnock said there was widespread disappointment with the speed with which refugee cases were handled, adding: “Too much, the hotline is completely cold.
A number of MEPs said the delay in issuing visas left refugees without money, exposing them to homelessness and various other dangers while they waited for the UK government to issue them visas. Stuart MacDonald, a spokesman for the Scottish National Party’s Home Office, said the government had erected a “huge wall of bureaucracy and bureaucracy” that “caused the full-blown misfortunes of Ukrainians fleeing the war” and called for the visa regime to be lifted. .
Fellow SNP MP Deirdre Brock highlighted the case of Julia, a Kharkov primary school teacher who has been waiting more than a month for her two-year-old daughter’s visa. Earlier this week, she was told the visa had been issued and the travel documents would be issued in a few days.
“But the child’s mother called by mistake, because a visa was actually issued to someone else and it will take about two more weeks to get the right visa. These people are actually homeless, “she said. “Every day the message that they are welcome in the United Kingdom is fading a little.
“I feel powerless”
Andrew Saunders, who offered to sponsor Julia and her daughter Diana, said: “From start to finish it was an extremely incompetent and inappropriate process – it had to take three to five days, but we are more than a month and still waiting for a visa for a two-year-old . ”
Julia, who asked not to have her last name printed, said she was puzzled by the need to conduct lengthy inspections before issuing a visa to a two-year-old child. After a month in Germany, she said, her money was running out and her daughter was increasingly restless. “I feel really upset and disappointed. We have already stayed in four places and we have to move again this weekend, so I am looking for a fifth place to stay. I feel powerless. ”
A government spokesman said: “We process thousands of visas a day – this shows that the changes we have made to streamline the service are working and we will continue to build on this success so that we can speed up the process even further.”
Add Comment