Ukraine: Refugees

Earl of Shrewsbury Excerpts

Wednesday 6th April 2022 Grand Committee

[The Earl of Shrewsbury (Con)]

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lady Helic on securing this most important of debates and I welcome the opportunity to continue to bring to my noble friend the Minister’s attention the case of two young Ukrainian nationals whose ongoing plight has been brought to my attention. I have been in touch with my noble friend and his senior officials on a number of occasions during the past week and have described to them the ongoing battle with this country’s ridiculous and completely unnecessary bureaucratic nightmare which these two young people are experiencing. I am certain that they are not alone in their experience. However, I put on record my thanks to my noble friend’s officials for their courtesy and assistance over the past few days and I congratulate my noble friend in advance of his maiden speech and welcome him to his new appointment —I know that he is extremely hard-working.

I applaud the Government for their laudable Homes for Ukraine scheme and those in this country who have offered to take into the safety of their homes Ukrainian refugees displaced by this appalling, unnecessary and horrific war. I must crave your Lordships’ indulgence while I describe the situation affecting these two young people. It is important and a photographic copy, I suppose, of what is happening to many people over there.

They are a 25 year-old woman and her 15 year-old sister, Olia and Tonya Voropay. Mrs Rachel Hickson, who lives at Cockshutt in Shropshire, contacted me some three weeks ago. She and her mother have long-standing close ties with Ukraine, especially as they know these two sisters. Mrs Hickson applied to take them into her home under the Government’s much-publicised Homes for Ukraine scheme. She was advised by the Home Office that both sisters could apply for visas and the scheme on the same form. They did so. However, the elder sister Olia received her permission to travel letter but the 15 year-old Tonya did not. The sisters’ mother died 10 years ago and they are all but estranged from their father. To all intents and purposes, Olia, aged 25, is the guardian of her younger sibling.

When Olia questioned the completely inhuman and irrational situation, which I believe representatives of the Home Office, or their agents in Ukraine, told her about, she was told by them that her younger sibling must reapply in writing as an individual, that this process would take at least three weeks and that they could advise no timescale at all. I was further advised by the Home Office officials over here that it was probably because the younger sister is a minor—but she is accompanied by her guardian, her elder sister. What on earth is going on? Every country in Europe is accepting these displaced people, yet we appear to be placing every barrier in their way. It is a total disgrace. What is wrong with us here? We raise their hopes and then dash them. These people are vulnerable and under huge stress. They deserve our support.

Tonya is in possession of a notarised document, signed by her father, giving her permission to leave and travel. I have sent copies of this document, both in Ukrainian and translated into English, to my noble friend’s private secretary, and I have included copies of both Tonya’s Ukrainian passport and her application form for a visa. Meanwhile, the two young women are stuck in Ukraine, with the war raging around them, while our bureaucratic machine grinds endlessly on. They are frightened and desperately worried, yet they have a family—friends of theirs—waiting to welcome them to the safety of Shropshire and a new life. Would my noble friend please give me an undertaking that this shameful situation will be rectified and the two young women provided with their documents with permission to travel without further delay?