Ministers are considering a climbdown to allow Ukrainians with temporary visas to bring relatives to the UK after Ukraine’s ambassador called for an easing of restrictions.
Amid scenes of chaos and despair at a visa application centre in Poland, government insiders said Ukrainians in the UK on work and student visas might also be allowed to bring their relatives to the UK.
The development came hours after Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine’s representative in London, told MPs he planned to ask Priti Patel why Ukrainians on temporary visas were not allowed to invite their family members to join them.
At prime minister’s questions, Boris Johnson faced further demands for the government to speed up the system. So far, just 760 UK visas have been granted from a total of 2 million Ukrainians who have fled their homeland.
According to a Whitehall source, the ambassador’s comments prompted a rethink. “There is movement on people with temporary visas, and the new plans should be released soon,” the Guardian was told.
It emerged as police were called on Wednesday to calm “angry” crowds standing in freezing temperatures at a UK application centre in south-east Poland. People trying to apply for visas in Rzeszów were seen banging on the centre’s windows after children and elderly people were forced to queue in freezing temperatures.
Police were called after staff told the crowds they were only able to process 100 applications a day.
In Westminster, Prystaiko told MPs that 100,000 of his citizens could come to Britain to escape the Russian war machine and said he would be “happy” if visa requirements for Ukrainians were lifted.
In a damning assessment of the UK’s immigration system, he called for a “simplified” process for refugees fleeing to the UK and disclosed that his own wife had struggled to get a visa before the Russia conflict.
Asked by members of the home affairs select committee if he would like visa requirements to be waived altogether, in line with moves in the EU, he said: “That would definitely resolve all the issues, but how reasonable, how justified it is with your own system, that’s frankly for you to decide.
“We will be happy if all the barriers are dropped for some period of time when we can get maximum [numbers] of people, then we will deal with that.”
Prystaiko also called for an easing of the “bureaucratic” processes that were hampering asylum seekers’ attempts to come to the UK.
He also addressed the allegations of racism at the borders, as black and Asian students attempted to flee the country.
“It has been raised many times. Ukraine is a very homogenic society and not many people with different races on the streets. Foreigners do stick out of the crowd [but] it doesn’t mean we are racist,” he said.
On Wednesday evening, David Cameron said the UK should be more generous in allowing Ukrainian refugees to come to Britain. The former prime minister told LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr: “Let’s find a way to get it done.”
Earlier in the day, Johnson was criticised by members of his own party, with one senior Tory calling for a “reset” on the government’s approach to the refugee crisis.
Julian Smith, a Conservative former chief whip, said: “I think people across the country are genuinely concerned about our response on refugees, on the bureaucracy, on the tone of our response.”
His comments follow a string of Tory MPs attacking Patel on Tuesday over the government’s chaotic response to the crisis. Thousands of refugees have struggled to book appointments at British visa centres across Europe, with hundreds in Calais unable to cross the border.
A visa centre being set up 75 miles away in Lille, northern France, to assist Ukrainian refugees will not offer appointments or walk-in access.
It has emerged that Patel called Ireland’s justice minister, Helen McEntee, last week to raise concerns that the common travel area could prove to be a back door to Ukrainians and others who wanted to go to the UK.
Ireland, in line with the EU protection programme, has lifted visa requirements for Ukrainians and offered them the right to work and live in the country for up to three years.
The taoiseach, Micheál Martin, told the Irish parliament that McEntee had “pointed out” that Ireland was acting in concert with the EU and that meant waiving visa requirements.
Reacting to the U-turn, Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “The government is constantly moving the goalposts for a visa scheme that is simply not suited to respond to an urgent humanitarian crisis. It must adopt an approach that first and foremost treats them as refugees. This means immediately waiving visa requirements.”
A UK government spokesperson said: “The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with the people of Ukraine and we have taken urgent action to process visas at speed for all those eligible to the Ukraine family scheme, while carrying out vital security checks.
“We have protected appointments at all of our visa application centres to ensure there is sufficient capacity and deployed extra staff to help people through the process as quickly as possible.”
They added: “We are increasing our capacity to meet this demand and will keep it under continuous review and increase further if needed. We have protected appointments for Ukrainians at Rzeszów and these are available to book – so people should book online rather than attempt a walk-in appointment.”
