Representational Image. AFP
London: Ukrainians who fled their homeland amid war with Russia, are finding it difficult to bring family members to live with them in the UK.
Reports claim migrants from Ukraine are unable to access several government schemes including the right to sponsor because they have not been granted a ‘refugee status’. Instead, a three-year visa is being handed over by the government.
Ministers’ decision to give them a temporary three-year visas rather than full refugee status is tearing apart many Ukrainian families’ hopes of a reunion, reports claim.
The Families Together coalition’s Emmeline Skinner Cassidy told The Independent that, “at first glance,” Ukrainians had an advantage over refugees from other nations because they had unique routes set up under strong public pressure at the beginning of the conflict.
“They are dependent on finding someone established in the UK to sponsor their family member for them if they need to bring a family member to join them here in safety,” she said
Due to the government’s failure to notify Ukrainians of what will happen when their three-year visas expire, those who intend to live in the UK are growing increasingly worried about their future.
Skinner Cassidy claimed that Ukrainians had been denied “access to some of the benefits that come with being recognised as a refugee.” People who are granted refugee status after successful asylum applications are granted indefinite leave to stay in Britain.
Ukrainians who came after the Russian invasion can sponsor their relatives to immigrate to the UK through the Homes for Ukraine programme, but it’s thought that the number of volunteers is dwindling as the initial outpouring of support for the conflict wanes and the cost-of-living crisis sets in.
Andrii Zharikov, a Ukrainian lecturer at the University of Portsmouth who has lived in the UK for seven years, claimed that after his mother and sister fled Ukraine as his father enlisted in the military to fight the invasion, he “gave up” attempting to persuade them to follow him.
According to him, he is not “eligible” to sponsor them under the government’s Ukraine Family Scheme because he is on a work visa, and after months of attempting, his loved ones finally settled in Germany.
The senior law lecturer, who travels to see them approximately every three months, said, “They cannot visit me here in the UK since applying for a UK visitor visa with a refugee status elsewhere bears substantial risks for refusal.”
Zharikov believes his mother and sister get “much more support” in Germany than they would in Britain, which includes regular allowances for everyday expenses and a university scholarship for his sister.
In a different instance, as reported by The Independent, a couple was unable to bring their elderly parents to join them despite having employment and school places secured for their children in the UK.
Their parents went to Ireland instead because there were less entry restrictions after the pair attempted and failed to find a new sponsor.
While the programmes had been a “essential lifeline” after war broke out, a lawyer who provides pro bono immigration assistance to those seeking shelter in the UK, said that the future is uncertain for such Ukrainian families.
Whether the government will continue to permit Ukrainians who have settled in the UK to stay in the nation after that period is as of yet unknown.
There is a pressing need to provide certainty and long-term solutions to these problems so that Ukrainians in this country can continue rebuilding their lives in safety.
“It is also uncertain for how long sponsors who have welcomed Ukrainians into their homes will continue to receive funding and government support, which only partially covers the cost of their charitable support,” a lawyerproviding pro bono assistance to immigrants told media.
The issue, according to the Refugee Council, is symptomatic of a larger problem, with the government creating special programmes outside of its normal refugee processes, such as those for Ukraine and Afghanistan.
It issued a warning that, in the midst of record backlogs for regular asylum applications, they leave refugees worthy of equal treatment and protection with “very different rights and entitlements.”
Meanwhile, requests continue to flood the unofficial Facebook groups created to pair Ukrainians with British families.
The Home Office confirmed that Ukrainians cannot sponsor family members under the family scheme until they have established immigration status, but it added that immigrants with Homes for Ukraine visas may do so if they satisfythe requirements.
These stipulate a minimum level of housing with a predetermined number of bedrooms per individual, but according to an official survey, the majority of Ukrainian immigrants who came under the programme are still living with sponsors.
The UK government, however, believes the have “launched one of the largest and fastest visa programmes in UK history in reaction to Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine”.
A government spokesperson claimed, “163,500 Ukrainians have successfully entered the UK as a result of Ukraine visa programmes. The quick visa handling allows thousands more Ukrainians to travel through our unrestricted routes”.
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