Charmaine Bird said that when she signed up to take in Ukrainian refugees nothing could have prepared her for the mammoth task she was unaware she would have to face. The 58-year-old grandmother and her ex-soldier husband Mike, 61, said they’d been let down at every turn of the visa application process and became so overwhelmed Charmaine was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery and Mike was left on daily medication for stress.
Their home has been lovingly decorated with Ukrainian flags and they have ensured Dmytro Budantsev and Alina Honchar, currently stuck in a temporary hostel in Poland, will have everything they need when they arrive. They’ve even got Dmytro on a bricklaying course for when he finally reaches their home in New Tredegar, Caerphilly borough. And they've bought a caravan in Porthcawl so the pair can have time away. But the stress of thinking it could all be for nothing haunts Charmaine every day - so much so she fell seriously ill last week which she says doctors put down to stress.
“I am absolutely outraged by it,” Charmaine told WalesOnline, reflecting on a gruelling two months since she first signed up for the UK Government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme on March 18. “Last Monday it got so bad I was rushed into hospital for emergency surgery on a hernia which doctors said was caused by stress. I was in for a week. I’m honestly not surprised with everything that’s going on.
“My husband is back on medication for stress with it all too. We’re not the only ones, I am talking to many sponsors and basically they’re all saying the same thing. It’s an absolute shambles.”
READ MORE: Husband drove to Ukraine to get wife to Wales but then she had visa rejected
After signing up for the Homes for Ukraine scheme in March the pair said they decided to go it alone halfway through April after hearing nothing back. They found a young woman from Ukraine via Facebook who wanted to travel to live with them, but she gave up on the UK Government visa application process and went to Canada instead after she found too much red tape. You can read more on the struggles of Ukrainian people travelling to Wales here.
They then found Dmytro and Alina again via Facebook at the start of April and they’ve been talking since. “They seem like a lovely couple and we really get on and so do our family with them,” Charmaine said.
“We decided to go for it and apply for the visas on April 18 after hearing nothing from the Government. Then, on April 24, we had a response from the Home Office informing us we hadn’t applied properly. We thought one application for them both would be fine, but then we had to apply again for them separately which was difficult and took a long time. We submitted it on April 24.”
Mike, who served for 17 years and travelled the world with the Royal Navy, said he felt compelled to do something to help Ukraine. “I couldn’t go there and fight obviously because of my age, so this made sense as a way we could help the Ukrainian people,” he said.
“We’ve heard nothing and we’re still waiting for responses to the visa applications and then for permission to travel. It’s been almost a month and we’ve heard nothing. Let’s not forget what Dmytro and Alina are going through. They are in temporary accommodation and have just one day to go before they effectively become homeless and could be on the street. We hear this every day and it is so stressful.”
Charmaine said she had been “appalled” at the lack of help she had received from her local MP’s office, which she said UK government staff told her to contact instead of them for updates. “They told me on Tuesday that they have no longer got time to deal with me and that the refugees are not constituents,” Charmaine claimed. “I’ve never been to the MP before in my life. I am really angry about their response. I was told they had the information to help us but I feel they’ve been useless.”
MP for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, Gerald Jones, responded: “The plight of Ukrainian refugees has touched us all. I’m overwhelmed by the outpouring of generosity shown by local people who are willing to share their homes with those seeking sanctuary. It is simply not true to say that I have not helped in this case. Regrettably, the original information provided in this case was not complete which has led to an unfortunate delay in the applications being processed.
“I contacted the Home Office within an hour of being provided with details from the sponsor and have this week provided an update explaining that documentation needs to be resubmitted. I am as frustrated as the sponsor at the length of time the Home Office is taking to action these applications.
“As a dedicated local MP, I am always available to help local residents. At no point was Mrs Bird told not to contact me. However, excessive and unpleasant telephone calls to my staff will not resolve issues at the Home Office. My team and I continue to work hard to ensure the Home Office deals with applications as quickly as possible.” To sign up to our Wales Matters newsletter for features on health, politics, and education click here.
“We’ve done everything asked of us,” Charmaine explained. “We’ve done the visas, we’ve got free flights for them, we’ve had Caerphilly Council come and inspect the house and tell us we need three fire alarms which we’ve had installed. We’ve jumped through hoops and we’re still not hearing back.”
As of May 17, 107,400 Ukrainian visas had been issued out of 128,100 applications. Of the 6.3m refugees to have left Ukraine more than three million are in Poland, while Romania has taken in almost a million and Hungary more than 600,000. Germany said as of May 14 it had taken in more than 700,000 Ukrainian refugees.
A UK Government spokesman said: “Thanks to the generosity of the public who have offered their homes and through our Ukraine Family Scheme, over 107,000 visas have been granted with more than 53,000 Ukrainians arriving safely in the UK. The Home Office has made changes to streamline the visa system and continue to speed up the process – including by simplifying the forms, and boosting staff."
