The UK’s treatment of refugees from Ukraine has been branded “disgraceful”, according to Ian Blackford.
The SNP Westminster leader said the Home Office refugee response is one of the slowest and most bureaucratic in the whole of Europe as an SNP MP highlighted how one fleeing couple had been told to come back for processing in two weeks time.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Inverclyde MP Ronnie Cowan MP raised the case of a Ukrainian constituent who had been trying to elderly parents aged in their 80s refuge in the UK.
Their application at the UK visa centre had been met with a message to return on the 22nd of March.
Cowan said: “Then and only then will their biometrics be processed. That is a harsh reality. Prime Minister, when will refugees from the Ukraine be welcomed into United Kingdom? “
Johnson said he would take up the case and promised the government was “moving heaven and earth” to get refugees in through a “new humanitarian route” as well as the family visa scheme.
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford accused the Conservative government of having an ideological objection to letting in more refugees.
Blackford said: “I don’t think the Prime Minister understands the scale of the challenge or the urgency. These are people fleeing war crimes, torn apart from their families as their homes are shelled. And the Home Secretary is blocking them with endless paperwork. This isn’t just incompetence, this is ideology.”
“In the face of the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War, the UK Government won’t set aside the hostile environment… we’ve seen this too many times from a Tory Home Office.”
“The UK Home Office is raising barriers and bureaucracy when we should be offering care and compassion. Prime Minister, do not let the history of failure repeat itself. Scotland stands ready to offer sanctuary and refuge, so will the Prime Minister join with the rest of the European continent and waive the visa restrictions for refugees fleeing war in Ukraine?”
Johnson responded that the UK had an “unparalleled record” in offering sanctuary to refugees and that 1,000 refugees had now been granted family visas to enter the UK.
The Prime Minister said: “He lectures the Home Secretary – this is a Government unlike any other, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Home Secretary, are directly descended from refugees.”
“We understand how much refugees have to give to this country and we understand what this country has to gain from welcoming refugees and we will be generous and we are being generous. This country is leading in every respect, but we are also the single biggest donor of humanitarian aid to the Ukraine war zone.”
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