NICOLA Sturgeon has backed a plea in support of Ukrainian refugees stranded in sub-zero temperatures outside a UK visa application centre in Poland.
TV presenter Lorraine Kelly urged officials to “open the effing door” after a video was shared online of people freezing in a queue.
Those in the queue, including children and elderly, are in the south-eastern town of Rzezsow, and are trying to apply for entry to the UK.
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LBC journalist Matthew Thompson, who shared the video, tweeted: “It’s -3 degrees. People have been waiting in this queue for 3 hours. There are children here. An 84 year old woman.
“And plenty of room inside, but they won’t open the door.”
Kelly responded on Twitter: “Open the effing door.”
Her post was then shared by the First Minister, who said later in Parliament: "Refuge and sanctuary first – bureaucracy second. Let people in and do the paperwork afterwards. Let’s open not just our hearts, but also our doors."
Open the effing door https://t.co/4M57Pxh6dQ
— Lorraine (@reallorraine) March 8, 2022
Thompson added: “People in the queue here all say the same thing. If they happened to live in France, or Germany, they wouldn’t need to be here at all. They could just take their relatives with them.
“The UK has quite literally left them out in the cold.”
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The Home Office, responding to the journalist, said it was unable to let more people into the building because it was not the landlord. Officials said they were trying to convince the landlord to let more people in.
Meanwhile, in the Commons, Tory MP Tracey Crouch said she had been told there were no available appointments for biometric testing at the Rzezsow visa application centre until the end of next month.
Home Office minister Kevin Foster said his department is “continuing to look at how we can surge and increase capacity at our application centres across the region”.
Around one million Ukrainian refugees have fled to Poland since the conflict began last month.
The country's government has announced plans to set up a £1.34 billion fund for people fleeing Ukraine, including the provision of a one-off payment of £50 for each refugee.
The UK Government, meanwhile, had only accepted around 50 visa applications by Monday evening.
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