Under mounting pressure to loosen visa restrictions, Patel has confirmed that fleeing refugees who hold passports will be able to complete a visa application to the UK's Ukraine Family Scheme digitally.

Speaking in the Commons, the home secretary said that from Tuesday, those trying to get from Ukraine to the UK who hold a national passport will be able to complete the whole application process online – in a bid to relieve pressure on visa processing centres. The Ukraine Family Scheme allows family members of people settled in the UK to join their relatives.

However, the new system falls a long way short of the European Union, which allows visa-free travel for Ukrainians fleeing the fighting. But the UK government insists visas are necessary to guarantee security.

The SNP’s human rights spokesman, Brendan O’Hara, described the shift as a “U-turn” from Patel.

The home secretary rejected calls from MPs and Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK Vadym Prystaiko to lift all visa rules for refugees.

While every comparable country has flung its borders open and welcomed refugees from Ukraine with open arms, the UK’s response has been labelled ‘disgraceful’, with the home secretary accused of being blind to her own cruelty.

Following reports that fewer than 1,000 visas for Ukrainian refugees have been issued by the UK so far, pressure has been growing for the Home Office to simplify visa requirements.  

Europe’s commendable response

Ireland, which has been working with the Irish Red Cross to launch an online system allowing people to register offers of accommodation for refugees from Ukraine, has already welcomed over 1,800 Ukrainians since the outbreak of the war.

Spain is set to welcome more than 6,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine this week, with authorities setting up three large processing centres to speed up the intake when more families escaping the conflict arrive at the country’s borders in forthcoming days.

“Ukrainians have a protection framework throughout Europe and Spain that simplifies all paperwork, gives immediate access to work and all international protection aid from the moment they arrive,” said Jose Luis Escriva, the Spanish minister of inclusion, social security and migration.

Neighbouring France is preparing accommodations for the first 10,000 refugees from Ukraine. The French national defence council has activated an inter-ministerial unit to prepare for and coordinate the arrival of Ukrainian refugees.

Meanwhile, reports show crowds lining train stations in Germany and Poland to welcome Ukrainian refuges into their homes. Under the current system in Germany, Ukrainians can reside in Germany for 90 days without a visa. Authorities are setting up a system where people from Ukraine will be able to register as refugees in the coming days. This will provide them with the right to stay in Germany for a year and have access to medical care, financial support and accommodation.

The creditable humanitarian response of European countries contrasts significantly to that of the UK, which is shadowed by stories of hundreds of Ukrainian refugees trying to reach Britain being turned back at the French border in Calais by British Border Force officials over paperwork.

UK’s response labelled a ‘disgrace’

Britain’s response to the crisis, which saw just 760 visa approvals in two weeks, has been described as a disgrace, with the home secretary coming under intense condemnation.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, has criticised the slow processing of visas, the shortage of appointments at visa centres, and the lack of clarity about who is able to apply, while pointing to the 600 Ukrainians who had been turned away in Calais since the refugee crisis began.

Following today’s announcement by Patel, Cooper welcomed the change, but rebuked the home secretary for the system in general, calling the treatment of refugees fleeing the war “a total, total disgrace, bringing shame on to our country”.

“I have to say to the home secretary – why does it always take being hauled into the House of Commons to make basic changes to help vulnerable people who are fleeing from Ukraine?” Cooper asked.

The shadow home secretary also raised the question as to why the changes were only being made now “when she has had intelligence for weeks, if not months, that she needed to prepare for a Russian invasion of Ukraine.”

“It is deeply wrong to leave people in this terrible state. Our country is better than this. If she can’t get this sorted out, frankly she should hand the job over to somebody else who can,” Cooper continued.

#PritiPatelResign

Yvette Cooper is not alone in querying the home secretary’s ability to do her job. Amid mounting criticism of a “chaotic” visa scheme which has resulted in Ukrainian refugees having to wait, in some cases, days before they can apply for a safe haven in Britain, the hashtag #PritiPatelResign has been trending on Twitter this week.

Tom Peck, the Independent’s political sketch writer, describes how to get to Britain, Ukrainian people have to find a pop-up visa centre that has been “deliberately hidden from them.” Peck continues how the UK’s disastrous response to accommodating Ukrainians is all the work of Priti Patel. He urges readers to return to the now home secretary’s appearance on BBC Question Time more than ten years ago, when she argued in favour of the death penalty, despite it being pointed out to her that wherever the death penalty exists, innocent people are executed.

“It is always worth rewatching, because it is frankly the best way to understand why the Home Office functions in the way it does. Because it is run by someone who is not merely cruel by nature, but who doesn’t seem to recognise how cruel she is,” Peck writes.

Disquiet mounting among Tory MPs

And it’s not just the opposition and political commentators who have been voicing dismay over the Home Office’s response. A disquiet has been growing among Tory MPs over the government’s refusal to loosen restrictions refugees from Ukraine are facing.

Roger Gale, Conservative MP for North Thanet, said: “It’s time that the home office granted a visa waiver and allowed children and all those adults with Ukrainian passports to come into the country now.”

While Alec Shelbrooke, Tory MP for Elmet and Rothwell, described the response to the crisis a “disgrace.”

‘National embarrassment’

The Home Office’s reaction to the crisis has been labelled a ‘national embarrassment’. As political vlogger Damien Willey tweeted, alongside the hashtag #PritiPatelResign:

“It’s become a source of national embarrassment to anyone with an ounce of feeling that we stand alone in demanding Ukrainians fleeing a warzone get visas and are not welcomed and supported here out of basic humanity.”

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward

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