Ukraine war: 300 Ukrainians get visas via new scheme, says UK
Image source, Getty ImagesThe number of Ukrainian refugees granted visas under the UK's new scheme has risen from about 50 on Sunday to 300, the Home Office has said.
It said 17,700 applications to re-join relatives have been started, and it has increased staff and appointments.
But nearly 600 refugees are stuck in Calais, with many saying they were turned away for lack of paperwork.
Almost 300 people have been turned away while trying to cross to the UK, French officials told the BBC.
People in Calais have been told to go to Paris to apply for their visa.
And some Ukrainians told the BBC they faced a wait of more than a week just for an appointment in the French capital.
More than 1.7 million people have now fled the war in Ukraine - most of them to Poland.
Unlike the European Union - which is allowing Ukrainians three-year residency without a visa - the UK has retained controls on entry, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying it was "sensible" to "have some basic ability to check who is coming in and who isn't".
There are two main routes to a visa for refugees from the war, requiring them either to have family in the UK, or a designated UK sponsor for their application.
After criticism from France that the UK's approach showed a "lack of humanity", Home Secretary Priti Patel said she had "surged a Home Office team" to help at Calais - and denied anyone had been turned back at the border.
But the BBC found a Home Office presence at a local administrative building disappeared on Monday morning, while a sign at the hostel where many refugees were staying directed them to Brussels or Paris for visa applications.
Calais' sub-prefect Véronique Deprez-Boudier said that 286 Ukrainian refugees have been turned away by UK authorities so far.
She told the BBC it is "important to build a more organised team" in Calais to assist them to get visas, rather than make them travel elsewhere to secure one.
The Home Office has said there was no visa application centre in Calais and urged people not to travel there.
It said staff have been "surged" at appointment centres across Europe - including in Poland, Romania, Hungary, Moldova and the Czech Republic - as well as in the UK in order to process applications as quickly as possible, while maintaining "essential security checks".
A spokesperson said the UK stands "shoulder-to-shoulder" with the Ukrainian people and it was "working at pace to process applications as quickly as possible".
'No-one can help us here'
By Mark Easton, BBC home editor in Calais
Misha Raminishvili was close to despair, his daughter in tears, as the news came through.
"No visa for at least another week," he said, simply. "No-one can help us in Calais."
I met Misha, with his Ukrainian wife Maria and two children, at a hostel in the French port which is accommodating 137 Ukrainian refugees.
Misha has a house in Hornchurch, east London, but lives between there and Kyiv.
He and his son, Misha Jr, have UK passports. But his wife Maria, and daughter Gabrielle, do not - and therefore need visas to enter the UK, which require biometric checks.
Misha has been stuck in Calais for five days, unable to get his family across the Channel, in what would be the last leg of a journey that began on 24 February.
In its latest progress update on refugee visas, the Home Office repeated its claim that it was the first visa scheme to launch since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Since the Ukraine Family Scheme launched on 4 March, 8,900 applications have been submitted, while 4,300 applicants have made appointments to submit their biometric details.
Of these, 640 applications have been confirmed, the Home Office says, and 300 visas have been issued so far.
The UK has previously expanded its visa scheme for refugees, widening the range of family connections allowing Ukrainians to apply and creating a second route for UK-based organisations to sponsor applications - with details to be set out this week.
It has also waived fees for Ukrainians.
But when questioned on Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson did not confirm suggestions that the UK would open up a third option for people without ties to the UK, saying only that it would have "a very generous and open approach".
War in Ukraine: More coverage
Amnesty International UK suggested "history is repeating itself" after the response to last year's crisis in Afghanistan.
Refugee and migrant rights director Steve Valdez-Symonds said the Home Office was "once again too slow and too bureaucratic in response to a refugee crisis that almost everyone saw coming".
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the government should be offering a "simple route to sanctuary" for people in danger, and said the Home Office is "in a complete mess".
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