Ukraine war: People can welcome refugees into own homes – PMon March 10, 2022 at 10:59 pm

Boris Johnson has defended the UK’s response to the refugee crisis and said an upcoming scheme will allow Britons to take Ukrainians into their homes.

He told Sky News the UK would be “generous” to those fleeing Ukraine, and that details of a second visa scheme would be announced on Monday.

Defending the current visa rules, the PM said: “People want us to be generous but also careful.”

The UK has been criticised for taking in just about 1,000 refugees so far.

Unlike the European Union – which is allowing Ukrainians three-year residency without a visa – the UK has retained controls on entry. Poland has already taken in 1.4 million refugees.

There are two main routes for Ukrainian refugees from the war to get a visa to come to the UK. The first requires them to have family settled in the UK. The second, which is yet to be established, allows Ukrainians to come to the UK if they have a sponsor for their application by an individual or organisation.

Speaking on Sky News’ Beth Rigby Interviews programme, Mr Johnson said “historically and by nature” Britain was “very generous, open and welcoming people”.

Defending the need for checks of biometric data – such as fingerprints – he said: “People want us to be generous but also careful,” adding security measures were “light touch” and “sensible given the attitudes of the Putin regime towards the UK”.

He said this would also be the “best thing for refugees, because they want a scheme that is safe, that is welcoming and that works”.

Challenged on why the checks would be needed for children – which are estimated to make up around half of the two million refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – he said these requirements did not apply to younger people.

But pressed on just 1,000 family visas being issued so far, Mr Johnson said it would “rise very sharply”.

He added that on Monday, the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Secretary Michael Gove would announce details of a second visa scheme, which he said would mean “if people want to welcome [them] into their own homes, they can do so”.

It comes after an earlier announcement by Home Secretary Priti Patel that Ukrainian refugees who had passports or ID cards would be able to apply for UK visas online from Tuesday.

The move – which Ms Patel said has the approval of the security services – would only apply to people applying under the family scheme and those who have passports.

Ms Patel said those applying online would be able to give their biometric data once in the UK and it allows visa application centres to focus on those without passports.

The Foreign Office also confirmed on Thursday that all Ukrainian staff working for the British embassy and British Council in Ukraine plus their dependents are also able to come to the UK.

Ms Patel said the online visa digital system would still allow “important checks” to be done.

Speaking about the issue of security, Ms Patel said the Salisbury poisonings in 2018 had showed what Russian President Vladimir Putin was “willing to do on our soil” and demonstrated that “a small number of people with evil intentions can wreak havoc on our streets”.

The speed of the UK’s response to taking in Ukrainian refugees has been criticised, with Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper calling it a “total disgrace”.

Ms Cooper asked why it had taken “being hauled into the House of Commons to make basic changes to help vulnerable people who are fleeing from Ukraine?”

She also questioned why there had been a delay when the home secretary had “had intelligence for weeks, if not months, that she needed to prepare for a Russian invasion of Ukraine”.

The refugee crisis has escalated rapidly in recent days as Russia ramped up bombardments of civilian areas in cities.

On Wednesday, an air strike hit a maternity and children’s ward at a hospital in the southern city of Mariupol.