UK Home Secretary Priti Patel is facing a mass lawsuit over delays that have put thousands of Ukrainians at risk of injury and Russian bombs or unknown in Eastern Europe.
A class action is being prepared on behalf of hundreds of Ukrainians who applied to travel to the UK weeks ago but whose cases are stuck in a “chaotic” visa backlog, the Guardian has learned.
Charities, including Save the Children and the Refugee Council, said the Homes for Ukraine program urgently needed to be redesigned as it endangered vulnerable children and added “trauma to existing trauma” following Russia’s invasion.
Chronic delays are complicated by the fact that the Ministry of Interior approves many visas but does not notify successful applicants. The government acknowledged on Thursday that it was aware of the problem after lawmakers across parliament voiced concerns about families waiting up to five weeks for news of their candidacy.
According to the latest government figures, 59,000 people have received approved visas but have not yet arrived in the UK. Only 15% of the 74,700 Ukrainians who applied for the sponsorship route have reached the UK.
Many of those who have not yet arrived will be people waiting for other family members to obtain visas before traveling; Children’s applications usually take longer because the UK requires them to undergo a security scan if they do not have their own international passport.
However, a significant proportion of 59,000 Ukrainians will be people who have received approved visas but have not been informed of the approval.
Amanda Jones, an immigration and public law lawyer, has been instructed to initiate legal proceedings on behalf of “many hundreds” of Ukrainians in lawsuits organized by members of the Vigil for Visas groups and to take action to delay visas to homes in Ukraine. This may include instituting judicial review proceedings against the Ministry of the Interior.
Legal action is also being prepared on behalf of single children who have not had access to reception facilities set up for them in the United Kingdom due to visa delays.
Anais Crane, a Wilson Solicitors contributor to the Here For Good Ukraine project representing several unaccompanied Ukrainian children, said they had waited more than a month for a decision and were beginning to lose hope. “Many of them are now considering returning to Ukraine because of their precarious situation in Europe,” she said.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow interior secretary, described the delay between approving and sending visas as “inexplicable and disgraceful” and called on the Home Office to reveal how many people have been affected and what steps it is taking to tackle the problem.
She added: “For families who have already fled war zones, then remain unaccounted for even longer because the Interior Ministry cannot even convene to inform people when visas have been issued. terrifying. Long delays make families more vulnerable to exploitation. “
Kirsty McNeill, executive director of Save the Children and a former adviser to Downing Street, said the bureaucracy increased the risk for some of the 1.5 million children who fled Ukraine after the February 24 Russian invasion.
She said: “Part of [the government’s] The argument for bureaucracy and slowness is that it keeps people safe. But it’s really the lack of pace that threatens children more than anything. “
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said the stories of women and children in dangerous situations were a “terrible but inevitable consequence” of an approach that had been “wrong from the start”.
He said: “The answer to what is obviously a serious humanitarian crisis with two visa routes … would always lead to putting paper and bureaucracy in front of people and their needs. Unfortunately, we are now witnessing the consequences of this approach. “
The International Rescue Committee said the UK was “remote” in Europe, requiring war refugees to apply for visas before arriving. Ireland, which does not require an arrival visa, has accepted approximately the same number of Ukrainians as the United Kingdom, although its population is one-thirteenth of Britain’s.
A government spokesman said: “In response to Putin’s barbaric invasion, we have launched one of the fastest and largest visa schemes in the history of the United Kingdom. More than 86,000 visas have been issued to allow Ukrainians to live and work in the United Kingdom.
“The changes the Interior Ministry has made to streamline the visa system, including simplifying forms and increasing staff numbers, are working and we are now processing visas as fast as we can – allowing thousands more Ukrainians to cross our unlimited routes.
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