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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Letters

Our families fled the war in Ukraine. Now they are tied up by Home Office red tape

Ukrainian refugees boarding a coach
‘The whole approach to this humanitarian nightmare has been nothing short of atrocious by the UK government,’ writes Mike Darkens. Photograph: AFP/Getty

In response to John Crace’s sketch (Is Priti Patel vicious or stupid? It’s a fine line for Ukrainian refugees, 10 March), I would like to share my family’s experience of needless and extremely cruel suffering. I am a Ukrainian-born British citizen who would like to bring my family to stay with me in the UK. My family is my elderly mum, who is partially blind, my 11-year-old niece, and my cousin, who lived in Kyiv.

The building where my mum lived was at the epicentre of heavy street fighting and an artillery blast. My cousin saved my mum’s life by pulling her out of the building at the very last moment. My relatives have had an extremely hard and long journey to the Polish border (almost 24 hours on a fully packed train). I met my family in Poland and we went to Warsaw to apply for a visa to the UK, as per guidance issued by the Home Office.

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