SARAH VINE: I’m deeply ashamed Britain is treating Ukrainians with such a lack of compassion. This visa scandal is not a refugee strategy – it’s a total embarrassment
At the start of this war, President Zelensky delivered a defiant response to America’s offer to spirit him out of Kyiv. ‘I need ammunition, not a ride.’
It was a seminal moment, one that set the tone for his response to Russia’s brutal assault on his country.
Almost two weeks in, and Zelensky is more defiant than ever. But while he holds the fort in Kyiv, the truth is that the Ukrainian people do need a ride. In fact, they need as many as they can get.
Having failed to break Zelensky’s resolve, the coward in the Kremlin is now ruthlessly targeting civilians.
Yesterday his forces destroyed a maternity hospital in Mariupol. Women and children, the new-born and the elderly, the disabled and the vulnerable: the more defenceless the better, it seems.
The refugee advice desk in the port of Calais, France, where Ukrainians can speak to UK border representatives
Gunfire
No wonder they are fleeing in their droves: already two million have crossed the border in a bid to escape the terror from the sky and indiscriminate gunfire from Russian troops on the ground.
The world is united in its condemnation of Putin’s actions, and in its desire to help the Ukrainian people.
All sorts of individuals and organisations, large and small, are scrambling to do what they can — not least the endlessly kind-hearted readers of the Daily Mail, who have already given millions of pounds in aid.
The nations to the west of Ukraine’s border are welcoming the beleaguered, bedraggled masses with warm shelters and open arms. Poland has taken more than 1.2 million; Hungary around 200,000, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova more than 300,000 between them.
Around a quarter of a million have already moved on to places such as Germany and France, and the EU is preparing to grant Ukrainians who flee the war the automatic right to stay and work throughout the 27 nations for up to three years.
And in Britain, what are we doing? The country that welcomed tens of thousands of Jewish children fleeing Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport, children who in many cases were the only members of their families to survive the Holocaust? Britain, which prides itself on its record on human rights, and which likes to think of itself as one of the most compassionate democracies on the planet?
Well, we had a sign — now removed — on a closed door in an unmanned outpost in Calais that said ‘No Visas’.
Beneath it, a URL weblink that took you to an online application form. Or even less charitably a directive to go to ‘Paris visa centre’ or ‘Bruxelles visa centre’ (no address, no directions).
How in the name of all that is holy is someone who has just travelled 2,000 miles in the freezing cold with everything they own in a suitcase supposed to download a blasted online form?
Oh, and they have now announced a new visa centre in Lille, 70 miles from Calais, although it will not offer appointments or walk-in access, and its exact location will not be made public.
As of yesterday, we had approved just 760 visas.
Mothers with babies in freezing cold wet nappies, grannies with aching joints, young children frightened out of their wits — it’s all the same. No visa, no entry.
All that way to get out of your home country — and not even a cup of tea or word of reassurance from Britain when you manage it. Just a bit of paper stuck to a wall and the prospect of a 200-mile journey back the way you came. It’s nothing short of a disgrace.
Ukrainians already in the UK are not faring much better in their attempts to help relatives reach safety.
Family members back home are being asked to provide verified translations of documents (how do you find a translator in a war zone?), proof of earnings and to fill in all sorts of mind-numbing forms — all while sheltering in basements with what few belongings they managed to save from their homes, the bombs raining down on them.
Refugees from Ukraine arrive at the Warszawa Wschodnia train station in Warsaw, Poland
People fleeing war-torn Ukraine arrive on a train from Poland at Hauptbahnhof railway station in Berlin, Germany
Even Ukraine’s own ambassador to Britain, Vadym Prystaiko, was initially unable to get a visa for his wife.
This is not a refugee strategy — it’s an embarrassment. I am furious — and deeply ashamed — that my country is treating these poor people with such an unbelievable lack of compassion, courtesy and common sense.
Cruel
How can we possibly justify sending exhausted families from pillar to post, making them jump through endless bureaucratic hoops when they are out of their minds with fear and grief, ripped from their lives, terrified for the fate of loved ones back home?
It’s an abomination.
Of course, I understand that the Home Office doesn’t want to risk letting in the wrong people. And it’s a legitimate worry: no doubt some will try to take advantage of the situation to worm their way into Britain under false pretences. But that is not a reason to punish everyone else.
Stubbornly implementing a complex system of routine regulation during a war-time emergency is, quite simply, idiotic. Not to mention cruel and inhumane. At times like this you have to offer help first, ask questions later.
Besides, it doesn’t take a genius to see that the vast majority of those leaving Ukraine are unwilling refugees who would much rather be back home in their own country than forced to beg for help from us. If we’ve learned anything about the Ukrainian people from the past couple of weeks, it’s that they are a proud and brave nation. If they could stay, they would. If they can go home, they will.
Humiliating
The last place they want to be is in a foreign country, especially since so many of them are women and children whose brothers and fathers are back home fighting for freedom.
They need understanding, hot soup and a welcoming hug. Not a humiliating 14-page visa application in a foreign language which they’re expected to fill in on a mobile phone in some godforsaken car park in Calais.
As to the worries about letting in ‘false’ refugees — well, that’s always going to be a problem, not least since Priti Patel seems incapable of getting any sort of grip on the constant stream of small boats crossing the Channel
To my mind there is only one honourable thing for the Government to do at this stage.
And that is to issue emergency short-term visas with minimum requirements to all Ukrainian nationals travelling with children, medical conditions and the elderly — and then process their longer-term applications once they have reached safety here in the UK.
As to the worries about letting in ‘false’ refugees — well, that’s always going to be a problem, not least since Priti Patel seems incapable of getting any sort of grip on the constant stream of small boats crossing the Channel.
But her failure in that department should not affect the plight of Ukrainians. If we had even a semi-competent Home Office, it would be able to rise to the occasion.
Instead, Putin’s victims must all dance to the tune of the bureaucrats in Whitehall while the rest of us look on, utterly ashamed, at the inadequacy of Britain’s response.
Source: Read Full Article