Ukraine ambassador calls for UK to end ‘bureaucratic red tape’ for refugees

Ukrainian refugees trying to reach the UK must not face bureaucratic hurdles, Ukraine’s ambassador to London says.

Vadym Prystaiko acknowledged the need for security checks, but said most refugees do not pose a threat.

He said paperwork issues can be dealt with later, as many “fleeing under bombardment” do not have access to necessary documents like a passport.

The government has resisted calls to eliminate all visa rules for refugees, citing security concerns.

More than two million people have fled since Russia invaded Ukraine and the Home Office has come under pressure to speed up visa processing after it emerged just 760 had been issued so far.

A spokesperson said the UK had taken “urgent action” to process visas while “carrying out vital security checks”.

Speaking on BBC One’s Question Time, Mr Prystaiko pointed out that most of those trying to get into the UK were women with children, as Ukrainian men were staying behind to fight.

“I hope they’re not posing any terrorist threat to the UK,” he said, adding: “I hope and beg the procedures will be dropped, every bureaucratic red tape should be cancelled.”

Mr Prystaiko also said the Ukrainian embassy in London could help the government to complete checks once people were in the country.

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi revealed plans were under way in his department to prepare for up to 100,000 Ukrainian children who might need places in schools in the UK.

He also acknowledged on Question Time that the system for Ukrainian refugees needed to “get better” and promised visa numbers would increase.

Mr Zahawi said: “When there’s a malign state that can use this particular issue to send people over to the UK that can do us harm, we have to have some checks.

“We need to streamline that, we need to get better at it and you will see that number increase of people we bring in.”

Home secretaries must know how to deal with flak. It goes with the job.

But when accusations of foot-dragging, complacency, heartlessness and lies come from your own backbenches, you know you have got a serious problem.

One Tory MP has called for Priti Patel to resign over her handling of the Ukrainian refugee emergency.

The Home Office is in crisis mode, trying to convince an increasingly sceptical nation that the department has got a grip of the situation.

“We are doing our best,” one insider tells me, before adding: “But we haven’t got everything right.”

The nightly images of desperate families fleeing a war but turned away by UK government officials confirm the latter point.

This is becoming deeply damaging for the Home Office and the prime minister.

Ms Patel is under intense pressure, with suggestions that Downing Street is losing confidence.

Read more from Mark here.

The refugee crisis has escalated rapidly in recent days as Russia ramps up bombardments of civilian areas in cities.

On Wednesday, an air strike hit a maternity and children’s hospital in the southern city of Mariupol.

The attack has drawn worldwide condemnation, as senior Western officials warn Russian President Vladimir Putin could launch a chemical weapons attack in Ukraine

More than two million people have now fled Ukraine, leading to what the United Nations has described as the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two.

The European Union has waived visas for all Ukrainian refugees for up to three years – with Poland alone taking in nearly 1.3 million people so far.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has continued to resist calls to drop visa requirements for Ukrainians fleeing the violence – insisting security checks were needed to prevent Russian agents being able to infiltrate the UK.

A government spokesperson said: “The UK stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the people of Ukraine and we have taken urgent action to process visas at speed for all those eligible to the Ukraine Family Scheme, while carrying out vital security checks.

“We have protected appointments at all of our visa application centres to ensure there is sufficient capacity and deployed extra staff to help people through the process as quickly as possible.”

The government’s response to the refugee crisis has been branded a “disgrace” by Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke, while fellow Conservative politician Sir Roger Gale called on Home Secretary Priti Patel to resign over the situation.

Earlier, the Ukrainian ambassador criticised the bureaucracy of the UK system, which he said even led to his wife to facing delays getting a visa when he got the role.

Mr Prystaiko, who took up his post in 2020, told MPs at the Home Affairs Committee: “I don’t want to see these pictures of people banging at the doors in Calais and scratching the doors which are quite sealed.”

On Wednesday afternoon, the mayor’s office in Calais had told the BBC that 87 Ukrainian refugees were taken by bus to Lille to a visa centre to be processed.

The coaches went to an undisclosed location on the outskirts of the city, according to a separate source, and the refugees were taken there by invitation only.

The government said the new temporary visa application centre for people applying to come to stay with Ukrainian family in the UK would open on Thursday in Lille, rather than in Calais, “in light of the risk from criminals actively operating in the area” around the port.

In a call with with Mr Zelensky on Wednesday, Mr Johnson committed to tightening economic sanctions on Russia further and reaffirmed the UK’s “unwavering support for the people of Ukraine”, Downing Street said.

The prime minister also thanked the Ukrainian president for his “deeply moving” and historic address to Parliament on Tuesday, adding Mr Zelensky had “earned the admiration and love of the British people”, a spokesperson said.

Writing on Twitter after the call, Mr Zelensky thanked the prime minister for the UK’s leadership in “countering the crime Russia is committing on [Ukrainian] land”.