EXCLUSIVE: Aberdeen woman left frustrated over Homes for Ukraine delay
The Homes for Ukraine scheme "isn't fit for purpose"
Last updated 6th Apr 2022
A woman in Aberdeen has exclusively told Northsound how she's still waiting on a visa being granted for a Ukrainian refugee she plans on housing, despite applying for it nearly three weeks ago.
After connecting with a refugee on social media, the visa application was sent to the Home Office on Friday March 18th.
The Home Office promised twice that they had "escalated" the case, though the refugee, now in Moldova, is no closer to making it to Scotland.
"I've spoke to her on FaceTime and we've been messaging constantly ever since I decided she was a really good fit.
"I filled in the visa application for her because it's a really difficult and really lengthy process, it took me about half an hour to fill in all of the forms.
"I sent it off on the 18th, which was the first day that you could submit the visa applications. She didn't have a passport, which made it slightly more complicated.
"I managed to book her an appointment physically with the embassy in Moldova, so she went there the following Monday, they said it was all fine. I then got a further acknowledgement saying that the government had it.
"Since then, nothing."
"The system isn't fit for purpose"
Reports at the end of March showed that only 2,700 visas had been granted through the Homes for Ukraine scheme, despite there being over 28,000 applications.
"To call on the country to come and stand up and do our bit, which people are, and then for them (UK Government) not to be able help, it's just a joke.
"We've given so many people hope in Ukraine, and then essentially, the system isn't fit for purpose.
"It's just so unfair to raise all of these people's hopes, and then kind of dash them all over them same space of time. There's a backlog of nearly 30,000 applications, how long is it going to take them to go through those?"
Should the Government be letting Ukrainians in without visas?
Countries across the world have been letting in refugees with Ukrainian passports before sorting out visas, though they are required to have one before entering the UK.
"When the scheme launched I thought it was good.
"I thought maybe the fact that we were carrying out checks was good for the safety of the people coming here primarily, but also for us taking them in.
"Getting them a visa is probably the safest way to do it, but not if it's going to take weeks and weeks.
"And obviously it is so clearly it's not working and they should be looking into primarily getting people to safety and then sorting out the visas afterwards."
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