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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Ed Pilkington in New York

‘Quite wrong’: David Miliband singles out UK’s visa policy on Ukrainian refugees

People seeking to leave Ukraine arrive at a train station in the Ukrainian city of Lviv on 4 March 2022.
People seeking to leave Ukraine arrive at a train station in the Ukrainian city of Lviv on 4 March 2022. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

David Miliband, the head of one of the world’s largest humanitarian aid groups, has called on western governments to meet their moral responsibilities amid the massive exodus of refugees from Ukraine, singling out the UK for its restrictive visa policy which he called unjustifiable and “quite wrong”.

In an interview with the Guardian, the former British foreign secretary warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was likely to cause “much, much more suffering”. He said the lightning speed of the refugee exodus, with 1 million Ukrainians having fled the country in just one week, had added to the trauma.

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