Ukraine: Visa Restrictions for Refugees

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Monday 28th February 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

The noble Baroness asks me to stray into territory we will be visiting later, and I am afraid I cannot do that.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

One of the answers the Minister struggled with before was confirming that it is relatively easy to get from Poland to the United Kingdom at the moment. There are more than 670 flights a week from Poland to the UK; a simple check on Skyscanner can confirm that. Will he please confirm one thing: that Ukrainian people fleeing—even to join their family, as my noble friend said—will not be charged £95 and will not have to wait in a long process? Please can he confirm that there will be an expedited process and it will not cost a penny?

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

The noble Lord has obviously had better access to Google in the past few minutes then I have, so I apologise for being unable to answer the earlier question on flights because I did not know the answer, but I have said that under the family reunion rules, that will be fee-free for this cohort.