Ukrainian refugees in an attempt to hide from war and mobilisation are fleeing to EU countries in the hope of establishing their usual life. However, in Europe they often encounter new problems that significantly prevent them from settling into their usual way of living.
A Ukrainian refugee couple who fled to the UK have been refused permission for their two-year-old daughter to stay after the government suddenly changed sponsorship rules, The Independent reports.
Oleksandra and Yaroslav were granted asylum from war under the Home for Ukraine programme in April 2022, leaving newborn Anna with her grandparents in Kyiv until they secured a job in the UK.
But after the couple finally overcame difficulties finding accommodation and setting up their own marketing business in the UK, in April the Home Office refused to grant them asylum for their daughter, who is now an infant, after rules for schemes allowing Ukrainians to do so were tightened in February. Oleksandra told The Independent:
“Now it seems like it’s impossible to bring Anna. I was almost there – and I wasn’t expecting [the legislation] to change. I’m very sad and frustrated, I don’t know what to do and how to react. If I am not able to bring Anna, we will be forced to leave everything and go somewhere else. I spent a lot of time building up the business, finding proper accommodation, and when we came here we didn’t have anything – our business in Ukraine was closed and we didn’t have any money. So it’s not a good situation.”
Although the Home Office insists the new rules will not prevent children from being reunited with their parents, charities have warned that the changes have had “unintended consequences” and could leave hundreds, if not thousands, of Ukrainians separated from their loved ones.
This “deeply shocking” failure “betrays our commitment to Ukrainians”, warned Labour MP Alf Dubs, who himself arrived in the UK as a six-year-old child fleeing the Nazis. Lord Dubs told The Independent:
“We pay lip service to how much we want to help Ukraine and the Ukrainians, then in practice we don’t do it. The most fundamental thing is, parents should be allowed to have their children with them – absolutely fundamental – and I think the government should be ashamed of itself.”
Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael said:
“I struggle to decide what is most offensive about this case – the cruelty or the incompetence. These are both the defining characteristics of this Conservative Home Office. The fact that they do not seem to understand their own rules tells you all you need to know.”
While previously Ukrainian refugees could sponsor family members, now only British and Irish citizens or those with permanent residency rights can do so. Announcing the changes on 19 February, the government said it had scrapped the usual 21-day implementation period to avoid an “inappropriate surge of applications”.
Approached about Anna’s case by The Independent, the Home Office said:
“We absolutely do not prevent a parent being joined by a child in the UK. The Ukraine scheme rules have never prevented this, nor do the changes prevent this.”
But despite stating on the application for Anna that they were her parents, Aleksandra and Jaroslav received a rejection letter 11 days later, on 26 April, stating that Anna was ineligible for a visa because, according to the new rules, her “sponsor does not meet the requirement that they must be a British or Irish citizen or have no restrictions on time spent in the UK”.
Naqeeb Sadiq, senior immigration adviser at Settled, the charity that helped Anna apply for her visa, said he feared the new legislation, which closes the Ukrainian Family programme and tightens rules on the Homes for Ukraine and Extended Ukraine schemes, could have “unintended consequences” and separate families.
While agreeing that the new policy has left Ukrainian refugees without the opportunity to bring their children, partners or family members to the UK, the Refugee Council also called on ministers to allow Ukrainians with temporary status in the UK to sponsor their close relatives. He said:
“Until they do, Ukrainians who have already suffered so much are being stopped from being with their loved ones and rebuilding their lives.”
A Home Office spokesman said their rules do not prevent children joining their parents:
“We continue to provide a safe and secure haven for those fleeing the ongoing conflict, whilst providing certainty and assurance for Ukrainians in the UK on their future as the war continues.”
Oleksandra and Yaroslav are not the only Ukrainian refugees who have suffered red tape and are forced to be separated from their child.
A Ukrainian family living in the UK say they cannot return home after their passports were stolen while on holiday, BBC reports.
The Buchko family, who have lived in the UK for two years, were in the Canary Islands last month but now have no visas to return to the UK. Bohdan, who is about to sit his final exams, and siblings Darina and Orest are in Ukraine waiting for documents to enter and return via Poland.
Without travel documents, 16-year-old Bohdan, 15-year-old Darina and nine-year-old Orest were forced to return to Ukraine on emergency Ukrainian passports. Their mum Mariana Buchko did not lose her passport and was therefore able to return to the UK.
They have since been issued with new Ukrainian passports, but Mariana says the Home Office has told her it could take up to eight weeks to issue them with new visas to return to the UK. The Home Office said it does not normally comment on individual cases.
However, document problems are not the worst thing that can await Ukrainian refugees with children abroad. Meanwhile, a Quebec man pleaded guilty to a hit-and-run in Montreal in 2022 that killed seven-year-old Mariia Legenkovska, a Ukrainian refugee who fled the war with her family, CTV News reports.
Juan Manuel Becerra Garcia, 46, entered a plea of guilty to a charge of failure to stop after a crash Thursday at a Montreal courthouse. Both the investigation and defence are seeking a sentence of 12 months to be served at home. The judge will make a ruling on June 5.
Legenkovska was walking to school with her older brother and sister in Montreal’s St. Ville neighbourhood on Dec. 13, 2022, when she was hit. The family had arrived in Canada two months before her death. Police said the driver fled the scene after the collision and surrendered to authorities hours later.
Garcia’s guilty plea means he avoided trial and his licence will be suspended for four years. His attorney, Eric Coulombe, said Garcia’s family’s story is not much different than Legenkovska’s. His client, a father of two kids, left Mexico and settled in Canada in search of a “better life” for his family.
