Government continuing to resist pressure on refugee visa policy as millions flee Ukraine

The Prime Minister suggested that security checks were necessary to prevent Russian agents infiltrating the UK, however, a charity boss has warned that Ministers are making a “fundamental error” in their treatment of “people who have lost everything through no fault of their own”.

Julian Smith urged Boris Johnson to “reset” the policy amid genuine concern from the public about the “tone of our response”.

There has been outcry from both sides of the Commons in recent days on refugees, with Conservative and Labour figures telling the Government that more needs to be done and quickly to help those fleeing find sanctuary.

The MP for Skipton and Ripon said during Prime Minister’s Questions: “I commend the Prime Minister’s response to this Ukrainian crisis, but I think people across the country are genuinely concerned on our response on refugees, on the bureaucracy, on the tone of our response.

“He has shown with vaccines that Government change really comes from the very top. Please, can I urge him to look again on resetting our policy and taking control of a more humane approach to those women and men fleeing from Ukraine?”

The intervention from the former Chief Whip came just one day after Elmet and Rothwell MP Alec Shelbrooke demanded the Home Office “get a grip” on visa processing.

Responding, to Mr Smith yesterday, Mr Johnson said: “We have done more than any other to resettle vulnerable people since 2015.

“I think there is a huge opportunity now for us to do even more, that’s why my right honourable friend, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, will be setting out a route by which the British people, not just the family reunion route which can run into the hundreds of thousands, but also a route by which everybody in this country can offer a home to people fleeing Ukraine.”

At least two million people are now thought to have left Ukraine since Vladimir Putin’s invasion last month.

Mr Johnson told MPs yesterday that “we’ve already got 1,000 people in under the existing scheme” but there “must” be checks on those arriving.

“We know how unscrupulous Putin can be in his methods, “he said.

“It would not be right to expose this country to unnecessary security risk and we will not do it.

“We are going to be as generous as we can possibly be, but we must have checks.”

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, warned MPs that we are facing “worst refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War” while Ministers “effectively tinker” with the system.

He told the Commons Home Affairs Committee yesterday: “We have Ukrainians queuing up in Calais, at the visa application centre in Poland, unable to access documentation.

“And I think the Government is making a fundamental error here. It’s not adopting a ‘refugees first’ approach, which it should be adopting.

“It seems to be adopting an approach which is ‘paperwork over people’ – people who have lost everything through no fault of their own.”

A woman living in Yorkshire described the visa system as an “absolute mess” as she tried to get her 79-year-old mother from Poland to the UK having fled.

“The whole process was designed to let as few Ukrainians in (to the UK) as possible,” Marianne Kay said.

“It’s confusing as hell and the rules are changing every day – it’s impossible to complete the process.

Meanwhile, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge also pledged their support for Ukraine yesterday, and revealed that their oldest children have had questions about the ongoing conflict.

On a visit to the Ukrainian Cultural Centre in London. they said that eight-year-old George and six-year-old Charlotte had asked about the tragedy.

“Ours have been coming home asking all about it,” William said. “They are obviously talking about it with their friends at school.”

He suggested he had found it difficult discussing some of it with his children, adding he had to “choose my words carefully to explain what is going on”.