[1andrew1]

Whilst the UK seems to have performed very well with military support, the same can't be said for accepting Ukranian refugees.

Only 10% of Ukrainian refugee visa applications to live with Britons approved

Of those applying under Homes for Ukraine scheme, just 2,700 have been accepted, minister tells MPs

Overall, fewer than half of the visa applications from Ukrainians fleeing the war and seeking to settle in the UK had been approved, Lord Richard Harrington told MPs.

He said that nearly 60,000 Ukrainians had applied for entry to the UK since Russia invaded their country last month. Of these, 31,200 were applications from people with family members with residency in the UK, 22,500 of which have been processed successfully.

More than 4mn Ukrainians have fled the country overall, according to the UN, 2.3mn of them to neighbouring Poland.

Around 150,000 Britons have volunteered as hosts in response. But Harrington said only 2,700, of 28,500 applications under this programme, had been processed. Harrington said the vetting of people coming into the UK using this method was more complicated, but admitted that the form filling required — it took him nearly one hour when he tried it at home — was “too long”.

“We are going through every step of trying to shorten that form with the support of officials and full support of the Home Office,” he told the House of Commons select committee for levelling up, housing and communities.

The aim, he said, was to ramp up to 15,000 visas a week under both programmes.

https://www.ft.com/content/bffc1267-...0-801268dc88b2

---------- Post added 31-03-2022 at 00:12 ---------- Previous post was 30-03-2022 at 23:36 ----------

And this is the sad reality in Ukraine for those hoping to get to the UK.

In the cold, dark basement of their bombed out apartment in Kharkiv, families huddle among the sewage pipes to keep warm. Two young girls, wearing thick coats and woolly hats, kneel in the dirt as they draw pictures of children beneath a bright yellow sun.

The children’s family are among a number of Ukrainians worried that their lives are being put at risk by the UK’s complex and lengthy visa application process.

On Wednesday, as Boris Johnson defended the government’s “overwhelmingly generous” record on refugees in the Commons, the Home Office revealed that just 2,700 visas have been issued under the Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme. Meanwhile, shells were falling near a makeshift bomb shelter in Kharkiv where several families are waiting for the UK to rubberstamp their path to safety.

“It’s constant bombing. Even in the blocks that are not bombed, there is no electricity. They have no water. There are no supplies. It is very scary for them,” said Tatyana Moskalenko, a Ukrainian who lives in the UK and is helping several families in Kharkiv navigate the UK visa process. “The majority of them have been spending weeks in a basement. They can’t get out of the house because it’s being constantly bombed.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...t-for-uk-visas