On March 11th 2022, Priti Patel (Home Secretary of the UK) announced “Ukrainian refugees with passports will be able to apply for UK visas online from Tuesday”. The move has been done with the approval of the security services.
She also mentioned that this is applicable for people who are applying under the scheme, where they can join family members already in the UK.
The UK is facing backlash on their slow immigration process for Ukrainian refugees to enter the country.
The Home Secretary stated, those applying online would be able to give their biometric data, such as fingerprints, once they arrive in the UK – allowing visa application centers to focus on those without passports.
However, the discussion did not include any details about how a second scheme for refugees, in which people and organizations could sponsor Ukrainians to come to the UK, would work or when it would begin.
Earlier it was proposed that the family scheme might be expanded to include relatives of people already in the UK on temporary visas, but this was not addressed by the Home Secretary in the Commons.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the UK should have “an offer as generous as possible” that was “as light touch as possible” for Ukrainian refugees. But it is crucial to run checks over their applications, background and documents. He told MPs that “almost 1,000 visas” had been issued so far and that “we expect those numbers to rise to in the region of hundreds of thousands”.
Which are the countries where the Ukrainian refugees fled to seek asylum?
The UN Reports as of 9 March says
| Countries | Nos of refugees |
|---|---|
| Poland | has taken in 1,412,502 refugees |
| Hungary | 214,160 |
| Slovakia | 165,199 |
| Romania | 84,671 |
| Moldova | 82,762 |
More than 255,000 people have gone to other European countries, said the UN.
How is the UK helping Ukrainian refugees?
- The UK government has responded to criticism that refugees were facing too much paperwork by announcing that from Tuesday 15 March they will be able to apply for visas online
- Previously, those with family links to the UK were still having to travel to visa application centres to give biometric information such as fingerprints. In the future, they will be able to do that in the UK
- A UK charity appeal for Ukraine has raised £120 million in less than a week
Shadow Home Secretary – Ms. Cooper raised a question – why there had been a delay when the home secretary had “had intelligence for weeks, if not months, that she needed to prepare for a Russian invasion of Ukraine”.
In her response, Ms. Patel expressed security concerns – the Salisbury poisonings in 2018 had shown what Russian President Vladimir Putin was “willing to do on our soil” and demonstrated that “a small number of people with evil intentions can wreak havoc on our streets”.