Twelve days after witnessing his home in Kharkiv being shelled by Russian forces, Sergei Koletvinov, a London-based van driver, was stopped at the Calais ferry entrance and told he could not take his family into Britain without a visa.
He was turned back at 2.30am on Thursday morning, and spent the rest of the night trying to sleep in his car with his wife, Oxana Lubeinoko, their two-and-a-half year old son, Simon, and their five-year-old daughter, Alissa, while parked outside a temporary Home Office advice centre in the port, turning the engine on occasionally to keep warm. They had consulted friends and Facebook sites and were under the impression that because he has permanent residency in the UK, they would have no problem crossing the border.
