Christians are becoming increasingly frustrated and impatient with the government’s ‘Homes for Ukraine’ visa scheme, the sponsorship initiative that allows people in the UK to offer Ukrainians fleeing the war a home here.
By early April, well over 30,000 applicants had not been matched with UK sponsors and only 1,200 Ukrainians had arrived here. This is in stark contrast to the position in other European countries, which have already accepted hundreds of thousands of people following the Russian invasion.
Iryna is Ukrainian and has lived in Sussex for the past 11 years. She has been trying to put those she knows in Ukraine who wish to leave in touch with people near her; so far she has matched 20 refugees with potential sponsors. She says the system is far too slow and bureaucratic, so she has turned to Facebook to make the necessary links. Even then, the visa system is almost impossible for non-English speakers to navigate. And UK sponsors trying to complete it also tend to find the online system baffling. Given the urgency of the situation Iryna wants the government to introduce automatic online matching. Despite some potential safeguarding snags which would need to be ironed out, she is convinced that would speed up the process.
