The UK's 'humiliating' Ukrainian refugee system has been accused of treating a family 'like criminals' as they fled for their lives. Mum-of-two Alina Gallacher-Gazhur, feared for her loved ones in her Ukrainian hometown as she watched the fighting unfold as the Russian invasion intensified.
All she wanted was to bring her family to safety - but she claims the UK visa system made it difficult. Alina's mum Anna, 60, niece Alexandra, nine, and her daughter-in-law Olga, 24, along with her aunt Valentina, 62, Valentina's daughter-in-law Tatiana and her daughter Sophia, three, all fled their homes in Ukraine to seek safety with Alina under the government's Ukrainian Family Scheme.
They crossed the border into Poland on March 13 and two days later travelled to Warsaw, where a centre has been set up to help people submit their applications. Alina, of Berwick, said she was shocked by how much information the UK government demanded from refugees, and at the length of the wait they faced, reports ChronicleLive.
