UK visa checks on Ukrainians to stop Russian infiltration

UK Health and Social Care Secretary, Sajid Javid, has said that checks on Ukrainians coming to Britain via a newly launched UK immigration scheme are ‘necessary’ to prevent Russian infiltration. With most of Europe providing  visa-free refuge to Ukrainians forced to flee their homeland, Britain has been blasted for failing to do the same. 

UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel, recently announced that UK visa checks on Ukrainians would remain because of the threat of Russian spies exploiting the crisis, a position that Javid fully supports. 

Mr Javid told Sky News: “We know the Russians have done that. They did it in 2018, when I had her [Patel’s] job, and we saw in our country Russian agents came here with a deadly nerve agent, a chemical weapon, and they used it in Salisbury. We know it killed people. And Russia was directly responsible for that.”

Agent infiltration

Javid went on to say: “They [Russia] infiltrated the UK with agents, with a chemical weapon and used it. And so it is right that there are some level of security checks. We also know that extremists and extremist organisations operate in that region. Of course, the level of security checks has to be proportionate to the issues that we’re dealing with.”

Meanwhile, the Home Office has said that more than 10,000 UK visas have now been issued to Ukrainian refugees under the Ukraine Family scheme, which allows refugees with family in the UK to apply to live in the country.

Since the Ukraine Family scheme was launched on 4 March, more than 31,000 applications have been made. Meanwhile, the Homes for Ukraine scheme, a second UK immigration scheme launched on 18 March, has received more than 150,000 expressions of interest.

This second immigration initiative allows Britons to host Ukrainians, without family connections in the UK, in their homes for a least six months.

Mr Javid said: “The process of matching Ukrainians to homes has already started. Most of the refugees are women and children because Ukraine President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has urged the men to stay and fight.”

UN data

According to the latest UN data – from 20 March - 3,437,976 Ukrainians have fled their homeland since Russia’s invasion began on 24 February. Meanwhile, approximately 10 million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes.

A further two million refugees have crossed over into neighbouring Poland, according to the UN data.

While the UK is allowing Ukrainians into the country, refugees with UK relatives have expressed their frustration over Home Office visa delays.

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “We stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine and the changes we’ve made to the visa process are making it quicker and simpler for Ukrainians to come here, as well as ensuring those already here can stay. Staff are working seven days a week to process applications as quickly as possible.”

However, some Ukrainians have said they have been made to wait weeks despite government promises to streamline the UK visa application process. 

Taitiana Dembicka, 73, a retired university administrator from Kyiv told The Guardian that she had had to switch hotel in Bucharest six times in seven days while waiting for a UK visa that would allow her to travel to Britain with her son, Eugene, who is a British citizen.

She submitted an application on 4 March and when Eugene’s local MP intervened and asked the Home Office what was taking so long, the MP was told that ‘additional checks had been requested’.

“She has applied previously for a UK visa many, many times, so I’m not clear what they’re actually checking,” the local MP said.

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