Shamed Priti Patel apologised today after admitting just 1,200 Homes for Ukraine refugees have arrived in the UK so far.
The “frustrated” Home Secretary pleaded “any new scheme takes time” after the paltry figure was branded “scandalous and shameful”.
New official data showed 79,800 visa applications had been received and 40,900 UK visas granted to Ukrainians fleeing the war.
Of all UK visas granted by Thursday, 28,500 are under the Ukraine Family Scheme for people with relatives in the UK.
The other 12,500 are under the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme, also known as Homes For Ukraine, which allows Brits to lend out their spare rooms to Ukrainians for at least six months.
Yet just 12,000 Ukrainians have so far arrived in the UK, with just 1,200 of those arriving under Homes for Ukraine. That is despite around 200,000 Brits expressing an interest in hosting them.
One furious family told the Telegraph they had been barred from hosting refugees because they had bare floorboards, while another was told to board up an interior safety glass door.
Council checklists also warned against “excessively steep” stairs, low windowsills and poisonous plants, it is claimed. Charred bodies were found in mass graves in the town of Bucha.
The Refugee Council accused the Government of "choosing control over compassion” after the EU decided to waive the requirement for a visa.
Chief executive Enver Solomon said Britons prepared to open up their homes were "angry and frustrated that their gesture of support has been lost into a web of bureaucracy and chaos".
He said the Government must waive visas as an immediate short-term measure and then introduce a "simplified emergency humanitarian visa process".
The meagre figures are dwarfed by the scale of the crisis - with 7million people displaced, 4million refugees and around 2.5million crossing from Ukraine into Poland.
Of those, Western officials believe 1.3million are still in Poland including around 700,000 children in Polish schools, despite many not speaking the language.
A Western official said the “gendered” nature of the crisis “is really striking” with 96-97% of those crossing the border being women and children, and the remainder older people.
Reception centres near the border are well-organised but “there simply were not 1.3million empty houses sitting around”, the official warned. Polish officials have used sports stadiums, exhibition centres and even a former Tesco.
“That is sustainable at the moment but how it evolves - we’re not going to see tented camps… but there is an accommodation problem,” the Western official warned.
Groups of people “literally don’t know what to do with themselves”, the official added, as many refugees want to remain close to the border because they want to go back.
A Western official said the availability of food as the months tick by “is a concern, it’s something we’re watching very closely.”
But some people are judging that Western Ukraine is “safe enough to go back to”, a Western official added. Combined with people going to fight, there was one day last weekend when more people went back into Ukraine than came out, they said.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper branded the figures “scandalous and shameful”, adding: “Over 30,000 people with British sponsors waiting are still stuck in limbo - around half of whom have been waiting more than ten days already to hear anything.
“A shocking 70% of Homes for Ukraine applications are still waiting for a visa.
“Behind these numbers are many desperate mothers and children in temporary accommodation or still sheltering in Ukraine.
“Where is the Home Secretary? She needs to stop hiding and account for this national disgrace.”
Ms Patel told the BBC “I apologise with frustration myself” but insisted “you will absolutely see changes in numbers”.
She added: “I’ll be very candid it has taken time. Any new scheme takes time.”
But defended her record, saying security checks "are not the problem" and it is “always easy to blame someone else”.
She said: "They're not seeing delays, we are processing, and as I've said as well I'm streamlining processes, I streamlined the family scheme in less than a week, and we simplified that and we changed the way certain checks are done.
"Also I'm working to automate where we can."
But Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said: “It is appalling that such a tiny number of refugees have been allowed into the UK, more than a month after the Home Secretary announced this scheme.
“This is a humanitarian emergency, but Priti Patel is putting paperwork before people.”
A government spokesperson said: “In response to Putin’s barbaric invasion we have launched one of the fastest and biggest visa schemes in UK history. In just four weeks, over 40,000 visas have been issued so people can rebuild their lives in the UK.”
