MORE than 20,000 visa applications have been made to come to the UK under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, but despite being pressed in Parliament the refugee minister was unable to say how many people had so far arrived.
In the face of frustration among peers at Westminster, Tory frontbencher Lord Harrington would only say that the Government “will be publishing the answer to that question very soon”.
Acknowledging there were problems with the visa system, he underlined his commitment to speed up the process and pointed out the Home Secretary Priti Patel had been personally involved.
Lord Harrington also said the Government had secured permission to break the European working time directive in order for embassies to open seven days a week to deal with applications.
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The minister was responding to an urgent question in the Lords over the take-up of the sponsorship scheme, including how many refugees had so far arrived since it was set up.
The Homes for Ukraine scheme opened on March 14, with the aim of allowing individuals, charities, community groups and businesses to bring Ukrainians – including those with no family ties to the UK – to safety.
However, Britain retains a visa requirement on security grounds while other European countries have waived checks in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion.
Lord Harrington told peers: “More than 20,000 applications have been received for the Homes for Ukraine scheme and we will be providing further information in due course.”
But independent crossbencher Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, who has herself applied to take in refugees, said: “I think the lack of information is extremely worrying.
“We have an ethical obligation of non-abandonment having given a commitment to stand with Ukraine and to offer sanctuary.
“Does the Government recognise that the visa process is causing great distress to already traumatised Ukrainians who have experienced cumulative losses, pervasive existential terror and mass bereavements, and are now increasingly at risk?
“The process is also increasingly frustrating to the tens of thousands of Britons who want to welcome them into their homes and will provide a long term commitment.”
Lord Harrington said: “I agree with much of the sentiments of what she has said.
“As far as the visa process is concerned, the only purpose for this is to provide security checks for this country. When I was given the job to do by the Prime Minister that was the only constraint.
“It’s my job to make sure the visa process is speeded up and in the last two weeks we have gone on to a system where those with Ukrainian passports can fill out the form and download the visa without having to go to a visa centre, which they did only two weeks ago.”
Labour former minister Lord Cunningham of Felling said: “How many Ukrainians have under the scheme been admitted to the United Kingdom? It’s quite simple. Or does he not know?”
Lord Harrington said: “We will be publishing the answer to that question very soon.”
The Bishop of Worcester, the Rt Rev Dr John Inge, said: “One acknowledges the need for security checks, but I have heard anecdotally a lot of times about the complexity of the visa process, how difficult that is.”
Lord Harrington said: “I am looking at every aspect of the visa process to speed it up. The Home Secretary personally and I have spent hours, and at weekends, with officials, looking at ways that we can speed this up.”
He added: “I promise him and I promise the House this is an absolute top priority.”
Plaid Cymru peer Lord Wigley raised the case of a Ukrainian refugee who had been turned away from a UK embassy while seeking to make a visa application as “they don’t deal with them on Mondays”.
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Asking for details, Lord Harrington said: “That’s unacceptable and there is no visa centre to my knowledge that would say that.
“We have broken such things as the European working hours directive with permission of governments to get embassies like Warsaw open seven days a week.
“It’s certainly not our intention to stop people with excuses like that.”
Rejecting claims the visa system was built to fail, he added: “It’s not, but there are problems with it.”
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