More than a month after the launch of the UK’s sponsorship scheme in Ukraine, thousands of sponsors are still waiting to greet Ukrainian citizens amid reports of bureaucracy and bureaucracy in the process.
Lynette Protero of Derbyshire was compared to sisters Jana and Inna and their three children on March 20, but weeks after applying, she says there is still no way to track his progress.
“The system is chaotic and fails these people,” Ms. Protheroe told Sky News.
Image: Lynette Protero was compared to her family on March 20
“You can order balloons from China and you can follow them and you know where they come from, you know where it is.
“Basically, you can tell when it will be delivered. You can’t track these visa applications. There’s no way the family can track them. You just have to wait.”
Only 12.7% of visa holders have arrived in the United Kingdom
The Sponsorship Scheme in Ukraine allows Ukrainian citizens and their family members to come to the United Kingdom if they have a designated sponsor under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
Since its launch on March 14, 55,600 visa applications have been received, of which 25,100 have been issued.
About 3,200 visa holders have arrived in the UK.
Image: Sisters Yana and Inna and their three children are at their home in Dnipro while waiting for their application to be processed
Yaya and Inna are currently at home on the Dnieper River, where fighting has intensified. Ms Protheroe said waiting to take them to safety had left her anxious.
“You revolve between total anger and the desire to shout at someone … to the point of being on the verge of tears,” she said.
“All five have current international biometric passports, so they do not need a visa. All they need is permission to travel by letter. We were told that it would take between three and five days. Well, now we ‘re on day 23.
“They pass us from pillar to post, we send emails, we do not receive answers, we receive information from MPs that is different from what we receive from other ways, and all we want is the truth. All we want is the truth about that first week when the system was overloaded and we couldn’t handle it, and our documents were lost. “
Image: Ms. Protheroe had to perform a series of security checks at her home during the trial
Safety checks are paramount
Bringing Lynette’s house in line with the council’s safety standards was also a daunting task. She had to fill her garden pond and was asked to glue glass doors and add restraints to the windows.
Ministers were faced with questions last summer after five-year-old Afghan refugee Mohamed Munib Majidi fell from a window on the ninth floor of the hotel where his family was temporarily housed.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said security was paramount.
“Children and women who will be vulnerable must be in a home where there are appropriate safety checks. “If something goes wrong because no checks have been made, we will all ask a lot of questions and raise real concerns,” he told Sky News.
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“But they need to be proportionate and they need to ensure that people are not delayed in entering people’s homes.”
Refugee Secretary Lord Harrington said the UK was on track to meet its ambition to handle the case in 48 hours.
“However, we are not complacent, we have already made a number of changes and we will do more to simplify the visa process even more, helping thousands more Ukrainians to come to the UK on these safe and legal routes and away from atrocities. in their homeland, “he said.
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