The UK Government really needs a lesson in keeping things simple. Nobody expects the infrastructure in place overnight to respond to a humanitarian catastrophe, but where the Ukrainian refugee crisis is concerned, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has got this badly wrong.
The people of Britain are hugely sympathetic to what’s happening in Ukraine and the plight of its people and they want their Government to help. But torn between a hardline Brexit-responsive immigration system and the realization that one can’t assign points to those fleeing war, Patel’s department is facing a backlash around its competence and probably wondering whether its Minister should have just followed the EU’s example.
Within days of Russia’s horrific all-out invasion of Ukraine which began on Feb. 24, the EU committed to allowing Ukrainian refugees Visa-free entry and freedoms for three years, with the bureaucracy to be dealt with later. The UK meanwhile has insisted on a “no-Visa, no-way” entry policy for Ukrainians, with Patel citing “security reasons” if the door were to be thrust open.
The Salisbury poisonings of 2018 are still very much in the forefront of politicians’ minds, as are recent reports from Kyiv of the threat posed by infiltrators assisting the invaders.
However, in recent days – which for most people caught up in this crisis already feels far longer– the Visa offer for Ukrainians has turned from pigswill to pea soup.
The tailored offer to Ukrainian refugees began with some light-touch concessions to existing Visa routes. But, for existing temporary UK Visa holders stuck in Britain, they would have to meet the criteria and switch to existing standard routes such as skilled workers or family Visas with a minimum income requirement and the need for a plethora of supporting documents.
As pointed out in a recent Research Briefing from the Government’s House of Commons library: “It is unclear how [UK Visas and Immigration] is handling cases where Ukrainians with expiring visas cannot meet the eligibility criteria to switch into a different immigration category”.
The new jewel in the crown of the UK’s offer for Ukrainian refugees is the Ukraine Family Scheme. It launched on March 4 and already looks set for a rebrand from March 16 with newly published Guidance for Home Office staff seemingly dropping the word ‘Family’ from the title. The scheme enables Ukrainians with certain family connections in the UK to stay for up to three years with the right to work and study. Added to this will be a sponsorship scheme whereby individuals and businesses can sponsor Ukrainians to enter Britain.
Prior to a change announced on March 10, Ukrainians would have to apply online and then attend a Visa Application Center to give their biometric data. Now the security advice has apparently changed and they will be able to apply entirely online from March 15 and give their biometrics in the UK.
But where there’s detail, one can always find a devil. Ukrainians completing the Visa application form are asked to list every country they have travelled to or transited through over the last ten years, with dates. Then come those peculiar questions that ask if you you’re a member of a terrorist organization and/or have ever committed genocide.
Meanwhile there’s still a big question mark over what Ukrainians with UK family connections should do who are already present and potentially stranded in the UK on a short-term stay, or who might have an existing Visitor Visa but not be in the UK right now.
Having called the dedicated advice line three times to ask about this predicament, I was given three different answers. The staff were certainly helpful – in two out of three cases even cheerful – and I couldn’t believe how quickly my calls were answered. But of this question, one agent said “Ukrainians with Visitor Visas can apply to the Family Scheme from outside the UK anyway”; another said “they’ll need to wait for more guidance about how to extend their existing stay from within the UK”; whilst a third toed the line of “we can’t advise you on that and we suggest you speak to an immigration lawyer”.
The main problem seems to be that the UK Government has created for itself a complex jigsaw puzzle with a thousand pieces which it now insists take time to put together. But nobody said it had to create that jigsaw when a simple box of colored bricks would have been fine under the circumstances.
Be mindful of when you may be reading this – all the pieces might already have been thrown up in the air again!
