THE UK Government has been slated for putting an excessive burden on refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine as families cannot apply together as a single unit.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has not made it possible for Ukrainian families to apply in one application while also only providing asylum forms in English with no readily available Ukrainian translation.
Speaking with The National, Glasgow-based Ukrainian immigration lawyer Alexander Boyd has spoken of the issues in the application processes. Boyd has been helping a number of refugees get to the UK and spoke of the problems with bringing family units into the country.
He said: “The main issue is that if you have a family who are coming over, let’s say it’s a mother and three children, it’s not just one form, it’s four forms for each individual. You have to duplicate the information across all the forms again and again.
“Some of the questions are irrelevant, like if you are completing the form for a one-year-old baby, you have to say if it has been employed by the armed forces, supports terrorism or engages in war crimes … As well as the question 'are you married, separated, widowed or single'.
“All of this would be fine if it was one application form but imagine if it is a large family.”
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Boyd also detailed the stress of waiting between decisions for individual family members.
He said: “The concerning thing is that the decisions don’t come at the same time for the whole family. It can be a father, mother and children, the grandmother, you know. They've applied together and it's a family group but it's not coordinated as one family.
“So it can be that father and mother get their decision one day and then the grandmother three days after that and the daughter a few days after. That makes people worry.”
Meanwhile, A report from openDemocracy said UK residents who have signed up to the Homes for Ukraine list claim that expectations on those seeking asylum from the conflict to complete the applications were “ridiculous”.
One British woman told openDemocracy that she spent seven hours assisting a Ukrainian family in completing their forms, including scanning documents while in a shelter in Lviv.
The woman, who is trying to sponsor a mother and two children, who have escaped from Odesa to Lviv, said “It’s so hard to do the application” and that it would be impossible for the family to complete the forms without help due to the limited technology available and language barrier.
Speaking to openDemocracy, she said: “They’re sleeping on the floor in a shelter with just their phones. The other night they could hear explosions outside and the building was shaking.”
She also said that there were no confirmation or reference numbers from the Government after completing their forms and that there had been no update from the Home Office for almost a week.
She said: “The worst thing is the stress of having somebody else's life in your hands and not being able to give them any news or hope because it is just a vacuum of nothingness.”
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In a reply to openDemocracy, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) failed to deny the reports and confirmed that the process was being continually reviewed.
A British Government spokesperson said: “We are moving as quickly as possible to ensure that those fleeing horrific persecution in Ukraine can find safety in the UK, and our Homes for Ukraine scheme now allows those without family connections to come here.
“The Home Office has acted to streamline the visa application process so valid passport holders no longer have to attend in-person appointments before arriving, allowing us to welcome people faster.”
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has been contacted for further comment.
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