UK Edition
Britain is to allow up to 200,000 Ukrainian refugees to come to the UK after expanding its “humanitarian” visa scheme to extended family members and sponsored workers.
Boris Johnson doubled the number of the refugees fleeing the Russian invasion that the UK will take from the 100,000 announced just 24 hours earlier by Priti Patel, the Home Secretary.
Under the plans, the family reunion route will be expanded to allow Britons and Ukrainians resident in the UK to bring in parents, siblings, adult sons and daughters and grandparents, in addition to the immediate family members already announced by ministers at the weekend.
The Government also unveiled a sponsorship scheme where businesses, community groups, local authorities and individuals will be able to sponsor a Ukrainian to come to the UK to work for 12 months.
Sponsors will have to pay for and organise accommodation and integration for eligible Ukrainian refugees who do not have family in the UK. Ms Patel told MPs that there would be no cap on any of the routes and all fees would be waived.
"There will be no numerical limit on this scheme and we'll welcome as many Ukrainians that wish to come and have match sponsors," she said. “Making a success of it will require a national effort from the entire country and our country will rise to that challenge.”
Previous community sponsorship schemes launched in the wake of the Syrian refugee crisis have struggled with Yvette Cooper, shadow home secretary, citing figures showing it had benefited just 500 refugees in five years.
However, Ms Patel said: “This is a generous, expansive and unprecedented package. It will mean the British public and Ukrainian diaspora can support displaced Ukrainians in the UK until they are able to return to a free and sovereign Ukraine.”
All refugees will require visas and have to undergo biometric and security checks because of fears that the schemes could be infiltrated by Russian agents and extremists leading to another Salisbury-style poisoning in the UK.
Ministers are resisting calls for a mass resettlement scheme because of concerns ‘it would give Putin a propaganda tool’.
A Home Office source said: ‘There’s a danger a narrative takes hold that “they’re all leaving, they’re off to Berlin, Paris and London”.
‘Putin would take advantage of this and put out the message that the Ukrainians are fleeing, they’re not putting up a fight. The Ukrainian government are saying “we need people to stay, and we need people armed with guns”.’
Mr Johnson said: “Many people in Britain will want to help UK refugees so we will make it easier for Ukrainians already living in the UK to bring their relatives to our country.
“Although the numbers are hard to calculate, they could be more than 200,000 and if the worst happens and President Zelensky and Government is no longer able to function, we must prepare to support them.
"Whatever happens in the weeks ahead, we should recognise this crisis will impose costs on ourselves and on our electorates. The sanctions have consequences for him as well as us. No step is free from risk.”
Mass exodus
Ministers admit the figure of 200,000 is an estimate as many of the fleeing Ukrainians may want to stay in the region, near the fighters or families that they have left in their homeland.
The Prime Minister also announced the Government would provide up to £220 million of emergency and humanitarian aid as it was estimated 600,000 have already fled Russia’s invasion. He said 1,000 UK troops were on standby to help the humanitarian response in Poland and neighbouring countries.
More than 100,000 people a day are expected to flee to Poland from Ukraine, the Polish prime minister warned on Monday, as Europe faces its biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, welcomed the announcement as an “important” start but added: “We are concerned, in reality it does not go far enough and could mean that far fewer Ukrainians are actually able to reach safety in the UK than the government claims.”
The Government has been under pressure from senior Tory MPs urging her to go further and refugee charities contrasting the UK’s “heartless and mean-spirited” offer with the EU’s plan to allow Ukrainians to stay for up to three years without any formal asylum process.
Eight former Cabinet ministers including Sir Robert Buckland, Jeremy Hunt, Damian Green and Matt Hancock were among the MPs to put their names to the letter calling for a "flexible and pragmatic approach" to allow Ukrainians to seek temporary refuge in the UK.
The 38 Tory MPs said: "It is clear that this is not another migration crisis; this is a crisis of war. This should not be business as usual, we need sincere and immediate support for the Ukrainian people.
"The United Kingdom cannot flag or fail, our message must be clear: Ukrainian victims of war seeking refuge are welcome."