Four more children have made it out of Ukraine two months after the Dnipro kids arrived in Scotland.
Image source, Dnipro Kids
Four more Ukrainian orphans from Dnipro have made it to Scotland to be reunited with their families.
The small group of children arrived in Glasgow on Monday and were whisked to join their orphanage families who are being cared for in Edinburgh.
The children had stayed behind in the war-torn country while others were evacuated following the Russian invasion in February.
They remained to complete medical recuperation in the city of Odesa.
However, like the operation to evacuate the original group, the journey to get them to the UK was long, frustrating and hampered by red tape.
Dnipro Kids charity spokesman, Steven Carr, told BBC Scotland that in the end, the children’s orphanage mothers – their official guardians – had to leave Edinburgh and travel back to Poland and across the Ukraine border to bring the children out of the country.
Mr Carr said three youngsters from one orphanage and one from another in Dnipro had been receiving medical care in Odesa, in the southwest of Ukraine.
“A decision was made for the children to stay there until the end of their recovery. Then the children were transferred back to Dnipro while they organised visas etc to get to the UK,” he said.
“The biggest problem was leaving Ukraine because their legal guardians were not with them. They were already in Scotland.”
The charity spent a long time pulling new paperwork together, but after having documents signed by the Ukrainian consulate in Edinburgh the children were turned away at the border because their legal guardians were not there in person.
Mr Carr said: “We thought we had everything in place but had to send them back to Lviv. It ended up our only option was to get two of the orphanage mums back to Poland, then a bus back into Ukraine to bring the children over the border.”
The delay cost them weeks, with Lviv subject to missile attacks by the Russians.
The group of 52 children and their guardians made headlines when the Dnipro Kids charity fought red tape to bring them to safety in Scotland.
After a month in Callander, near Stirling, they moved to Edinburgh where they have started school and settled into their new, temporary lives.
The new children will shortly be enrolled in school with their orphanage brothers and sisters.
The Dnipro refugees have settled well, but frustration remains over government bureaucracy.
The charity has been waiting for two months to receive biometric residence permits for about half of the Ukrainians it brought to Scotland.
Mr Carr said: “We have received little contact from the Home Office. For two months they have been waiting for these residence permits.
“They need these to be able to open a bank account and apply for benefits or assistance with housing – all the things we are entitled to as residents.”
When asked about the issue with the permits, a UK government spokeswoman said: “We’re delighted that the children have safely arrived in the UK and we are making sure they have everything they need to welcome them during their stay.”