Ukrainian workers at Kyiv’s UK Embassy ‘can’t come to Britain without visa’

Ukrainians who worked for the UK at the British Embassy in Kyiv have reportedly been told they will not be able to seek asylum in Britain unless they go through a bureaucratic application and they are successful.

According to The Independent, staff members, who have worked for the Embassy for years, can only apply for the visa to flee from the war with Russia to Britain if they have relatives in the UK.

The newspaper revealed British diplomats are “deeply unhappy” with the way their Ukrainian colleagues have been treated and have shared their thoughts with the Foreign Office in London – and that they worry Ukrainian Embassy workers will be targetted by Russian troops.

After Home Secretary Priti Patel announced the Ukraine Family Scheme visa last week, some Ukrainian staff from the Embassy reportedly tried to apply for a UK visa from Warsaw, but discovered the Home Office demands around £2,000 and proof that they can pay for medical bills in Britain.

Poland

It comes as Tory MP Tracy Crouch said there are no available appointments at UK’s refugee application centre in Rzeszow, Poland until the end of April.

Meanwhile, Poland has received an extraordinary number of Ukrainian refugees: over one million, prompting The Spectator to call it a “humanitarian superpower”.

But although Patel told MPs that thousands have applied to come to the UK via the Ukraine Family Scheme visa, so far only 300 have been approved.

And hundreds of refugees are reportedly stuck in Calais after being turned away for lack of paperwork, which Patel said on Sunday is “wrong” to claim.

But the following day, BBC’s Mark Easton went to Calais and said there were three officials, a box of ready-salted crisps and some kitkats.

There was also a notice board announcing “no visas in Calais”, prompting Easton to reveal the UK government is asking Ukrainians to call a UK number or go to a website and then travel to Paris or Brussels to get the necessary documents which could allow them to come to the UK, if successful.

“Now of course, making international calls, getting online or getting to Brussels or Paris from Calais may be easier said than done if you’ve just arrived from a war zone,” presenter Ros Atkins highlighted.

Europe allows Ukrainian refugees to come visa-free

Atkins cited figures from the United Nations, showing over two million refugees fled Ukraine, and most of them went to neighbouring countries: Poland, Romania, Moldova, Hungary and Slovakia.

He pointed out some are travelling to Western Europe – albeit much fewer – and that the EU is now allowing Ukrainians to stay in the bloc for three years, after extending their 90-day visa-free rights in the light of the war.

But Johnson confirmed the UK would not follow a similar paperless approach, shattering hopes that Ukrainians could flee without being required to go through a visa application process by Britain.

Andra Maciuca

Andra is a multilingual, award-winning NQJ senior journalist and the UK’s first Romanian representing co-nationals in Britain and reporting on EU citizens for national news. She is interested in UK, EU and Eastern European affairs, EU citizens in the UK, British citizens in the EU, environmental reporting, ethical consumerism and corporate social responsibility. She has contributed articles to VICE, Ethical Consumer and The New European and likes writing poetry, singing, songwriting and playing instruments. She studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield and has a Masters in International Business and Management from the University of Manchester. Follow her on: