While other European countries have accepted hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the Russian invasion, only about 1,200 have so far arrived in Britain under the Homes for Ukraine program funded by British hosts. Another 10,800 have arrived under the Ukrainian family system for those with existing family ties to the UK. The figures show that as of Thursday, the government had received 79,800 visa applications from Ukrainians for visas and had so far issued a total of 40,900 visas. In a pre-recorded interview with the BBC, Patel said: “I apologize with frustration myself; it takes time to start a new journey.” He said it was “always easy to blame someone else”, but security checks “were not the problem” when the time came for Ukrainian refugees to arrive in the UK. But her words provoked an angry response from British hosts, who said the government’s insistence on Ukrainians applying for visas was troubling and left some in their pockets after paying hotel bills abroad for delays. Lauren Corbishley, a mental health nurse who waited 21 days for the government to issue a visa to a Ukrainian family in Poland, said: “Priti Patel’s apology is an insult to these thousands of people like me who are waiting to hear or receive statements. their. travel letter permit. Empty words. “We are still financing my family in Poland and there is no end. “I was a Tory voter once upon a time, but after this visa scandal and the way I was treated along with many others, I will not vote for this disgusting party again.” A refugee charity has called on the government to urgently reconsider visa use and lift it as an immediate short-term measure. Enver Solomon, the Council’s Executive Advisor to Refugees, said: “Visa systems are completely inadequate to meet the biggest refugee crisis in Europe in a generation. “Asking Ukrainian families, who are frightened, exhausted and injured, to fill out a long and complicated application is unacceptable and completely irrelevant to the dire situation in which they find themselves. “By opting for compassion when it comes to protecting refugees, the government is indifferent, not only to the British public, but to the rest of Europe, who have opened their doors to welcome tens of thousands of Ukrainian families in desperate need. ” he said. Homes for Ukraine started on March 14. Its purpose is to enable individuals, charities, community groups and other organizations to sponsor named refugees, housing them in their homes or buildings. Those who do not personally know someone fleeing Ukraine have been advised to contact groups that are beginning to make connections between individuals, to match them with a refugee. The UK requires refugees to have a visa before entering, unlike other European countries that have waived checks to speed things up. Those who are granted a visa under the system will be eligible for work and will have access to government benefits and public services for three years. As of Thursday, 12,500 visas had been issued under the sponsorship program out of 43,600 applications, according to Interior Ministry figures. Of the 36,300 applications for family visas, 28,500 have been approved. The quickest way to help Ukrainian refugees would be to stop the UK from requiring visas for those leaving Ukraine – and to align with many other countries that have done so since the crisis began, the British Red Cross said. Refugees with a valid Ukrainian international passport can apply electronically, but those without a passport must go to a visa application center. Home Secretary Richard Harrington said about 10 percent of the requests so far were from people who had to go to the centers. After saying from the BBC that there was “huge frustration” in the public facing delays of three to four weeks and blaming the bureaucracy for not being able to put people in, Patel replied: “They see no delays. “We are working on it and, as I said, I am streamlining the procedures. “I streamlined the family program in less than a week and we simplified it and changed the way some checks are done. “I’m also working to automate where we can.” Asked why Britain was playing “to close the gap” with other countries, Patel said comparisons with EU members were not “the same”. A government source familiar with the matter said it was “a victim of the system’s popularity”. “We are not yet in a situation where we have something like the visa processing time that we would like to have or that we were actually made to believe we could have.” An e-mail was to be sent to all applicants, making it clear that there might still be plenty of time to process visas, given the large number of applicants. The government noted that the number of people arriving in the UK is less than the number of visas issued. Government sources have suggested that this may mean that some people are applying to the UK as one of the various options. However, applicants noted that because visas are issued to individuals rather than family units, it is usually not possible to travel until everyone has been issued a visa and that there have been large gaps between issuance dates.
