Ukraine: Refugees

Baroness Sheehan Excerpts

Wednesday 6th April 2022 Grand Committee

[Baroness Sheehan (LD)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, and I thank the usual channels for allowing me to speak in the gap. I add my thanks to the noble Baroness, Lady Helic, for bringing this important debate to Grand Committee and I look forward to the maiden speech of the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Harrington. In advance, I pay tribute to the work that he has done on settling refugees during his time in the other place. It gives me confidence that, in time, he will be able to make the Homes for Ukraine scheme less of a challenge, because the process is currently not user-friendly—certainly not at the Ukrainian end. As we have heard from numerous noble Lords today, the need is urgent. Is the application form for the Homes for Ukraine scheme now available in Ukrainian and Russian?

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill) (Lab)]

My Lords, there is a Division in the House, so we will adjourn for a few minutes.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Sheehan (LD)]

Can the Minister say whether the application form for the Homes for Ukraine scheme is now available in Ukrainian and Russian, or are families still expected to use Google Translate or add additional layers of complexity and confusion by asking a sponsor to fill in the form? The Minister will know from conversations last week that the guidance page on the government website is in English, Ukrainian and Russian, but the application form itself is available only in English still. Why is that? If we can manage the guidance page in three languages, why cannot we manage the application form itself?

From the figures that the Minister gave to the House last week, I hope that he will agree that it is quite shocking that, even after refugees have jumped through various hoops, the Home Office has approved only one in 10 applications. People are stuck in limbo when they should not be. I know of more than 20 people who have jumped through the hoops and now have reference numbers, sponsors and job offers, but are waiting for an official letter of permission to travel, without which they cannot enter the UK. Last Thursday, the Minister was unable to say how many letters of permission to travel had been issued. Maybe he could update the Grand Committee this afternoon.

I now know of one letter of permission to travel from the group of people whom I mentioned earlier, which was issued to a four year-old girl. However, the mother did not receive a letter. For goodness’ sake, is it really beyond the means of the Home Office to link an application of a child of four years to its parents and deal with the two together? Like many others, they should already be here.

The Government are putting out a lot of campaign press releases, which seem to suggest that there are no problems. That blatantly is not the case. I suggest that the Government would do better to put out press releases that tell it as it is, then maybe the Minister would not be put under pressure from noble Lords who seek to help Ukrainians with whom they are in contact and who need our help so urgently. I hope today that the Minister will be able to put that right and tell us that people have now begun to arrive in England on the Homes for Ukraine scheme. I hope that the figures that the Minister will give us refer to the Homes for Ukraine scheme and not the Ukraine family scheme, which seems to have fewer problems—but maybe that is not so.

I mention the figures for England, as the guidance page on the government website tells us that Ukrainians can choose the Scottish Government as a sponsor and that the Welsh Government will also act as a sponsor. We have already heard details of that from the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay. Maybe the unused Nightingale centres will finally come in handy if we in England can waive visas also.

In conclusion, the Government continue to put paperwork before people, which is such a sad case. When Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Germany and a host of other countries can waive visas and welcome people as refugees first, filling in the paperwork afterwards, why cannot our Government in Westminster do the same?