NHS nurse is ‘begging on hands and knees’ for officials to fix delays and allow ‘distressed’ Ukrainian family-of-three into her home as Red Cross says UK’s visa rules should be scrapped

• Lauren Corbishley, 43, an NHS nurse from Dawlish in Devon, applied to the Homes For Ukraine scheme to bring three members of a Ukrainian family to UK
• She made a plea to Home Office which she says ‘appears to have shut up shop’
• Head of British Red Cross criticised ‘long, complex’ application process for refugees seeking sanctuary in UK, called for the removal of visa requirements

An NHS nurse has said she is ‘begging on hands and knees’ for UK officials to fix delays and allow a ‘distressed’ Ukrainian family-of-three enter her home, as the British Red Cross calls for the country’s visa rules to be scrapped.

Lauren Corbishley, 43, a nurse from Dawlish in Devon, applied to the Homes For Ukraine scheme on March 18 to bring three members of a Ukrainian family to the UK – but aside from the council making inquiries about a DBS check, she has heard nothing back.

Ms Corbishley said she has ‘two beautiful spare rooms waiting’ for Yuliia, husband Glib, their 17-year-old daughter Maryna and their two huskies, who have been in Warsaw since March 10 after fleeing across Ukraine’s western border.

‘I’m basically on my hands and knees, begging,’ she said, in a plea to the Home Office, which she said appeared to have ‘shut up shop’.

‘As a nurse in this NHS that has worked through this pandemic, I’m on my knees, and I’m begging [the Government], please find my family’s applications and give them the [visas].

‘Help me. I’ve given this country two years of my time with this pandemic, I am not rich, and I just want something back – and that is to get this family here.’

The 43-year-old said she was getting ‘distressed’ messages from the family asking what they should do.

‘I don’t know any more than them,’ she said. ‘I’m as in the dark as them.’

She added: ‘Yuliia yesterday was saying that she’s ashamed that we don’t want her here, but it seems like the Government doesn’t want them here.

‘And what do you keep saying to the people that keep saying that to you? It’s hard.’

Meanwhile, the head of the British Red Cross criticised the ‘long, complex’ application process for Ukrainian refugees seeking sanctuary in the UK, and called for the removal of visa requirements. 

NHS nurse Lauren Corbishley, 43, from Dawlish, in Devon, pictured, has said she is ‘begging on hands and knees’ for UK officials to fix delays and allow a Ukrainian family into her home

Mike Adamson, the charity’s chief executive, said only a ‘small trickle’ of refugees are reaching the UK and that it should be made ‘much easier to come here’.

‘It will remain a slow process with the current visa arrangements in place and it’s only if we remove those that we’ll actually start to see a steady flow,’ he told BBC Breakfast.

‘The whole of Europe and many other countries have waived their visa requirements.

‘Most Ukrainians have biometric passports so we can do checks on them when they get here, we can find out who they are.

‘And if we set up really good welcome centres and hubs, as the Government has actually promised, then we can look after them there, go through the matching processes, check out all the safety and security requirements.

‘But the key thing is we get far more people here and then Britain would be playing its part at scale alongside our partners across Europe and of course showing solidarity and practical support to the people of Ukraine in this terrible situation.’ 

So far, around 12,000 people had arrived in the UK under Ukraine visa schemes as of Tuesday, according to Home Office figures.

Some 10,800 people had arrived under the Ukraine family scheme but only 1,200 had made it to the UK as part of the Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme, provisional data published on the department’s website shows.

The UN says more than 4.3 million people have fled Ukraine into bordering countries, with that figure expected to rise as people living in the east of the country flee west amid warnings that Russia is re-focusing its military operation on the region.

Just yesterday, two Russian missiles struck a railway station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, killing at least 52 people who were attempting to flee west.

NHS nurse Lauren pointed out that many of those fleeing Ukraine have suffered ‘trauma’ and are going through ‘mental torture’.

‘The urgency on this is paramount to get people settled and safe,’ she said.

‘The longer that goes on, where they’re just left in limbo, the trauma that they’ve already got from fleeing the war is just gonna get worse.’

Ms Corbishley and her husband Ian have spent more than £1,000 of their own money on accommodation for Yuliia and her family as they have waited for the application to be approved.

The family have lost their home in Kharkiv as well as Glib’s business, which relied on Russian clients.

They were put in touch with Ms Corbishley via the Shelter For Ukraine website around a month ago, and have been in touch ever since.

‘We’re emotionally invested in it, both of us now,’ she said.

‘That’s the heartbreaking thing because I could possibly say to her, ‘Look – go somewhere else, go where you are wanted, go where you haven’t got to wait in this pain and get your life on track and try and rebuild’.

‘But there’s a selfish part of me now that is desperate to get here here because we’re friends and I’ve invested into it. She’s invested into it. That’s really the hardest thing.’

She called on the Government to provide clarity for those who are waiting to hear back about their Homes For Ukraine applications.

She said: ‘Please just tell us, what do you want us to do? You want us to reapply?

‘Because waiting is not a good enough response. We can’t just be told to wait any more. It’s awful.’ 

A village in Oxfordshire that has prepared homes for 45 refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine has only seen one Ukrainian family arrive so far.

Polly Vacher, 78, who is co-ordinating the project, said would-be hosts in the village of North Moreton have been ready to welcome refugees for more than three weeks.

‘The houses have been ready and support network is there,’ she told BBC Breakfast.

Homes for Ukraine aims to match refugees with individuals, charities and other organisations who can provide accommodation for at least six months, enabling those without family ties in Britain to enter the country

‘Our village who are waiting already with lots of support can’t get the refugees because the visas don’t come through and if you think about it, these people, they’ve been through the most terrible situation.’

Ms Vacher also criticised the ‘very lengthy process’ of filling in visa application forms, saying it took lawyers two hours to complete for one family.

‘These lawyers have put in 150 applications, and only 10% have actually received their visas,’ she added.

‘And after they put in the applications they got a message from the Home Office to say they’d lost some of the attachments, which are things like passports and that sort of thing, and therefore they had to resubmit the application, which meant they went to the bottom of the list.’

The Home Secretary on Friday apologised ‘with frustration’ after coming under fire over ‘delays’ in the time it is taking for Ukrainian refugees to arrive in the UK.

But Priti Patel denied visa requirements and checks are slowing the process and causing delays, insisting the UK will ‘absolutely see changes in numbers’ as work continues.

Around 12,000 people had arrived in the UK under Ukraine visa schemes as of Tuesday, according to Home Office figures.

Some 10,800 people had arrived under the Ukraine family scheme but only 1,200 had made it to the UK as part of the Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme, provisional data published on the department’s website shows.

A Government spokesperson said: ‘We are moving as quickly as possible to ensure that those fleeing Ukraine can find safety in the UK through the Ukraine Family Scheme and Homes for Ukraine.

‘We have streamlined the process so valid passport holders do not have to attend in-person appointments before arriving in the UK, simplified our forms and boosted caseworker numbers, while ensuring vital security checks are carried out.

‘We continue to speed up visa processing across both schemes, with almost 30,000 visas issued in the last three weeks alone and thousands more expected to come through these uncapped routes.’ 

Source: Read Full Article