EDIT: There is now a Twitter thread containing a TL;DR that you can retweet! Please see it here: https://twitter.com/ScotchSirin/status/1501325553718210564?s=20&t=UB96e5rCQpVZQnbyhTE4ug

Below is a copy of an email that my mother wrote to our MP, MSP (we live in Scotland), and the Home Office. I have full permission to spread it around. As many people need to know about how the British government is treating Ukrainian refugees.

I am sure by now you must have heard about it, but I beg you, please give it a read. It is one thing to hear about the visa scheme issues in abstract numbers (50, 300, 17 thousand applicants…) but another thing to see the struggle of one person.

*****

>I am writing to you today as your constituent about a personal issue, but it is also something that is currently affecting many thousands of people in the UK and in Ukraine. I apologize for the long message, but I think it’s important to describe the situation in some detail to explain its full implications.
>
>As you know, Russia is currently conducting a brutal, genocidal war against Ukrainian people, which is specifically targeting civilians, and as of now about 1.7 million people have left the country, fleeing the hostilities. Last Friday, my mother had to leave the city of Kharkiv, which is currently experiencing constant shelling and aerial bombardment, due to its close proximity to the Russian border. On the first leg of her journey, she took a 20-hour long ride on an evacuation train, which was so packed with refugees that she had to stand for the entire time – only women with young children and the frail were able to get a seat. No one was allowed to take any luggage larger than a small handbag, as the evacuation teams at the railway station were trying to take in as many people as possible. So she left her home city, where she spent most of her life, with just clothes on her back, her passport, some money and a 500ml water bottle. The train took her to Lviv, a city in Western Ukraine that is relatively safe at the moment. She spent a night there and took a bus to the Polish border, which she crossed on foot after standing in a 10 hour long queue. Once on the Polish side of the border, she got help from volunteers who provided her with transport to Krakow, where I was able to book her a hotel and where she had her first meal in almost three days. I am telling you this story because it is not unique just to my mother, it is very similar for all Ukrainian people who are currently fleeing from the war. My mother is luckier than most because as of this morning, her home was still standing, none of her family and friends have been killed or wounded, and she has enough money to pay for her food and lodging. She is also in relatively good health, despite her age (she is 72), and does not have a young child or a frail elderly relative who needs constant care.
>
>As soon as she started her journey, I filled out the application form for her UK visa, under the new Ukraine Family Scheme. This took me a few hours to complete, and I kept wondering about appropriateness and relevance of some of the questions. For instance, certain parts of the application form asked about involvement of the applicant in war crimes and terrorist activities, which struck me as particularly tone deaf under the circumstances. In addition to this, some of the documents that are required to support the application are impossible to obtain, or are irrelevant. For example, the application checklist asked for a current bank statement, and for evidence of close family members remaining in Ukraine. My mother’s bank in Kharkiv was physically destroyed by a ballistic missile, so it won’t be issuing any bank statements to its clients for a while. As for family members, most refugees would have none remaining in Ukraine, so there can be no evidence.
>
>Once I completed the application, I discovered that there had to be a minimum of a 2 week wait until the next available appointment to submit biometric data, since all visa centres across Europe are struggling with the influx of Ukrainian applicants. My mother visited the Rzeszow visa application centre today, which is exclusive to Ukraine Family Scheme applicants, and there were at least several hundred people trying to get in, some being turned away even though they had appointments. Just to reiterate, every single one of these people has been traumatised by staying in bomb shelters, often for many days at a time, by loss of their possessions, home, and sometimes loved ones. To make them wait several weeks before they can join their relatives in the UK who are ready to offer them refuge and support is simply inhumane. It also serves no useful purpose since most of these people are already known to the Home office. They have most likely been granted UK visas in the past, and like my mother, have passed all the security checks and submitted their biometric data multiple times already. These people are overwhelmingly women, children and elderly. All Ukrainian men who can hold arms have been going back to Ukraine to join the army or the territorial reserve. I simply fail to see how an elderly woman, or a mother with a young child who are fleeing from war in a country that has always been UK’s close friend and ally, can present a security risk to the UK state.
>
>British people have been able to visit Ukraine visa-free since 2012, and they always received the warmest welcome in the times of peace. Ukrainians, meanwhile, have enjoyed visa-free travel in the Schengen countries since 2017, and this, to the best of my knowledge, has not caused any migration or security issues. Perhaps it is time for the UK to review its visa policy towards Ukraine, so that, in this hour of greatest need, our Ukrainian relatives could join their families in the UK on a short term basis without unnecessary red tape. For now it is not clear how long the war will last. They might only need a few weeks’ refuge until they are able to return home. If they need to stay longer, they could apply for an extension of their stay from within the UK. Once the war is over, most people will be able to return to their homes immediately, but for some it will take perhaps a few months as several Ukrainian towns have been completely destroyed and will take time to rebuild. Circumstances could be assessed individually so that everyone gets fair treatment. This is not only for the sake of refugees themselves, but also to help the countries in continental Europe whose services are already starting to break down because too many people are coming in too quickly – and yet our friends in Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Germany and all other EU member countries are doing all they can to help. I am not alone in thinking that I would rather use my own funds to help my mother, so that she can give up her place in Poland to someone who perhaps has greater need.
>
>I apologize, again, for the long message. I quite understand that with this crisis unfolding so suddenly and so quickly, it is very difficult to adjust policies and make the right decisions. People in Ukraine are extremely grateful to the United Kingdom for supplying defensive weapons before Russia attacked, as this certainly was one of the major factors that held the initial assault until such time that Ukrainian cities could be fortified to fend off the main offensive. They are also grateful for the financial help for the Ukrainian government and for the ever increasing sanction pressure on Russia. All of these things are making a difference. But war cannot be won with weapons and sanctions alone. Ukrainian civilians need to be protected by all means available, so that once the war is over, country could be rebuilt and normal life restored as quickly as possible. A waiver, even temporary, of short-term visas for Ukrainian nationals, is what the United Kingdom can do now to provide immediate help and humanitarian relief.
>
>Thank you for reading this letter. I am happy to provide any further information if needed. I hope that you will find my thoughts on this matter relevant and that they will make a difference.
>
>With all best wishes,
>
>NB

I do not ask for Tory-bashing, please. We are posting this here not because we want to complain or criticise them (as rightly deserved as it is) but because we want change. Please, Reddit. Spread this around, contact your local MP, contact the Home Office, protest, put pressure on the government however you can. Lives depend on this.

Thank you, from a Ukrainian family who has called the UK home for the past 22 years.

41 comments

  2. Tories are racists so I’m afraid it’s the truth. I applaud your open mindedness but Priti Patel is a very very evil person.

  3. This is heartbreaking to read, however I do feel that the majority of our government do not care. Especially Pritti Patel, I sincerely hope your family member is reunited with you soon.

  4. Slam this on Twitter with a picture of your gran looking sad. Tag James O’Brien, a few newspapers (Guardian, Times, etc) a few angry Tory backbenchers and some Labour front benchers (shadow sec for immigration would be a good one).

    I know that sounds incredibly opportunistic and shallow but it will likely gain some attention as it’s a moving story and will hopefully lead to some shame-induced action.

  6. Priti Patel. Once described as the kind of person that would unplug your life support so she could charge her iPhone.

    That was more of a personal attack than a Tory bashing, so I hope it’s allowable.

  7. Have you written this up on Twitter? Could be shared to some of the news outlets and direct to government accounts. Hope you are reunited soon, ridiculous you even have to wait and mess around like this.

  8. I can believe every word of this, we went through a difficult situation with UK immigration during the first lockdown (too long to write here right now) and the lack of accountability or the availability of anyone to speak to was appalling. It lead to my wife being stuck overseas for weeks at this with us unsure when she’d get back to my daughter and I. I’m convinced the whole immigration process is intentionally difficult at the best of times, a hangover of the Hostile Environment policies enacted when May was Home Sec, but for these to still be in place for refugees fleeing war is truly repugnant.

  11. Not that it’ll do much, but I’ve emailed a link from this post to my local (Labour) MP (South Wales). Whether anything can come of it, who knows, but as long as we try and push the message along I suppose is the least we can do.

    I wish you all the best.

  12. I was at the border on Saturday.
    I’m based in Poland. If I can help in any way.
    I will.
    Already sent some via Dublin to Scotland. 😉

  13. I’m extremely ashamed and embarrassed how the uk government is treating Ukrainian refugees (including your gran).

    Do you have any Twitter post or similar I can share to help you? I think the suggestions of trying to get traction online for your case are sensible.

  14. Good luck and I hope this get resolved. We will not even try with the Home Office as I know this will be a nightmare to go through bringing my husband’s grandmother here from Ukraine. Luckily we have relatives in other EU countries that will be more accommodating to people fleeing war.

    P.S. I have many friends in Kharkiv, it pains me to see what is left of it.

  15. I’m totally ashamed about the way in which my government is dragging its feet in helping Ukrainian refugees. If it’s any comfort the British people are all too willing to help and are trying to do so regardless of what the government recommends we can do. It’s disgraceful that it’s taking so long for the Home Office to pull its finger out.

  17. Unfortunately this is where we’ve come to as a country. For so long we’ve had it rammed down our throats that immigration = bad and it’s causing us all these problems.

    In normal circumstances the public should be outraged by this and millions would be putting pressure on the government. Instead these people will be blamed for housing shortage and job shortages. We’ve seen it before, some refugees are even given the terrorist tag just because of the country they’re from.

    The wealth and resources are there but they are just hoarded by the few.

  19. If you do need to get her out of Poland urgently, can you get her to Ireland in the meantime? As a British citizen you can visit, live and work there for as long as you please. As a Ukrainian citizen, she only needs her passport.

    It’s not a perfect solution, and not a long-term one either given that you live in Scotland, but might be an okay stopgap?

  20. Please don’t give up, and I’m so sorry for yours and your mother’s situation, but this is, unfortunately, what the majority voted for in 2016, and again in 2017, and again in 2019.

    I don’t think this is going to change, even with the mounting pressure from the public to do more for Ukraine during this invasion.

    The backbenchers would kick up a storm for their 15 minutes on national morning TV, and it’d only be a matter of time before the red tops decide that the UK needs to hate Ukranians as much as it hates Poles and Romanians.

    I’d like to be proved wrong, and the reaction on the international stage to the Russian invasion has been beyond my most optimistic expectations, but the UK gov in terms of sanctions on Russian oligarchs and support for Ukrainian refugees has unfortunately been pretty much in-line with how it’s acted over the last 5+ years, and that is, supposedly (and repeatedly), the will of the people.

    Flag waving and clapping is what this government is built upon, and I think that’s all we’ll get as far as refugees are concerned.

  21. link sent to my MP ..a government whip! i’d encourage other readers to copy and paste the thread link to their MPs

  24. Terribly sorry, I’ve had a couple pints and I’m on mobile so idk how to email Brendan O’Hara right now but I assure you, as soon as I can I will email him. I truly hope you and your loved ones make through this okay. хай живе україна!

  25. Hiya. If you go to the Guardian website, you may well find a call for testimonies from Ukraine citizens trying to leave. You can post this letter to them and they might well be glad to publish your story. Good luck to you and your family.

  27. I’m so sorry that the UK Gov are adding to the stress. It’s extremely upsetting that we are so far behind in our duty to help our friends from overseas. Please share a Twitter link, I’d love to join in the pressure wave!

  29. I would never in any way encourage illegality, but the fact is that your gran is free to travel to Ireland visa free, and she could stay somewhere safe within an hour’s journey of you and yours while the visa cuntbasketry is dealt with

    Also totally unrelated but I know for a fact that Dublin to Manchester flights do not involve a passport check, and as far as I know other airports generally don’t check Irish flights either

  30. It’s been designed that way because the British population wanted it that way unfortunately. Our politics for the past decade has specifically been about keeping foreigners out.

  31. They seem to be reusing the forms that us economic migrants have to fill in. It’s astonishing and insane and evil. Anyone else recall a vigorous campaign to free the U.K. from idiotic bureaucracy and suffocating red tape.

  32. I must admit that I am embarrassed. I am a proud Brit. My fiancé is a proud Lithuanian. The difference in support to Ukraine that our countries are offering is shocking! No wonder the rest of Europe dislikes us when we fail to act in times like this! I hope this shambles gets sorted out fast and that we can offer a safe haven to all who need it soon. We have empty Nightingale hospitals all over the country if needs be. God forbid the Russians turned on us- who the hell would help us now?

  35. Good luck! I hope home office develops some morals.

    Poland has 100 times the number of refugees than the UK has refugees seeking visas. It’s a ridiculous shame that the UK can’t even match 1% of what poland is already doing..

  37. From the office of the minister who tried to get border patrol to let immigrants drown in the Channel, I am shocked, shocked!

  39. The annoying thing is I have friends in the Home Office and they had a department wide meeting where people were patting themselves on the back on such a good job they had done. Absolutely disgraceful

  41. The current government would have made the Dunkirk evacuees sit tight so that they could triple check their biometric documents before letting them board a boat.

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