THE CURRENT SITUATION
Today we stand in solidarity with our friends in the refugee sector who are preparing legal action against Priti Patel over delays to Ukrainian visa processing. This bureaucratic chaos is leaving thousands of Ukrainian children and their families at risk of further trauma and denied their legal right to seek safety.
THE PROBLEM
Since February, we’ve seen enormous generosity across Britain from people willing to welcome children who’ve fled Ukraine into their homes and there’s been record breaking sums donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee fundraising appeal. Yet the UK government is not matching this level of compassion in its response to the crisis. The Home Office is placing numerous bureaucratic hurdles in the way of children and their families trying to flee desperate situations and the longer these delays continue, the more at risk of further exploitation these children are.
WHAT IS NEEDED
The Home Office should be turbo-charging its response to this crisis – putting in place a rapid expansion in the number of caseworkers who have the skills and knowledge to look at applications and make quick and informed decisions about which can be fast tracked, and which need more information. They should prioritise child-specific expertise to both assess and provide the tailored support that children need on arrival, so they can start to re-build their lives. Above all, there should be a simplified humanitarian visa process that is fit for purpose for 2022 and that can be applied to other crises like Afghanistan where refugees also desperately need support.
The government must act now or else more displaced children from Ukraine will be in danger.
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