Families who have volunteered to take in refugees from Ukraine are having to deal with the “heart-breaking” task of telling them they cannot come yet because visas have not yet been granted.
Gary Gray, who runs the volunteer organisation scothosts.org, said so far only a “paltry” 270 visas had been granted to allow people from Ukraine to travel to Scotland.
And with thousands of Scots having offered to open their home to those fleeing the war, he said there was “frustration” at the length of time it was taking for the paperwork to be carried out.
His comments come after Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, complained that the “process of translating applications into visas is unacceptably slow”.
The First Minister hit out: “There is a clear and urgent need to speed up the processing of applications and the granting of visas.
“It is essential that the UK Government addresses these lengthy delays to provide rapid support to those in need.”
Speaking on Friday, she said: “In the midst of a harrowing conflict, it is neither reasonable nor morally acceptable to expect people fleeing a brutal invasion to go through the bureaucratic processes being put in their way and wait weeks to be given a visa.”
Her comments were echoed by Mr Gray, who said that often the situation could be hindered because only one person in a family group would be granted a visa, leaving them unable to come to the UK together.
Of the 270 visas he said had been granted for Scotland, he added: “You may have one out of four family members have got their visa approved.”
As a result of this he told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “We don’t think there is that many that have been able to come to Scotland.”
Mr Gray said his organisation was “very much calling on the UK Government to remove the requirement for visas” – something the Scottish Government has already urged the the Home Office to do.
The hardest part of this is telling the families in Ukraine 'I’m sorry, the visa still hasn’t been approved'. That’s the hardest part, it is heart-breaking
“These families are fleeing a warzone,” he said.
“What I would use as an example is how Ireland are processing this, they are managing to process the people who come to Ireland in 12 hours.
“We are currently in a situation more than 12 days out there are people who have not had their visas approved and they are getting very little information.”
By insisting people coming from Ukraine have a visa before entering the UK, Mr Gray claimed that the Home Office was “using the existing immigration route for an emergency situation”.
He added: “We feel that is not really appropriate for the situation we are in, we need something bespoke, rather than a normal immigration route.”
The organisation scothosts.org is working with 800 families across Scotland who have registered to host refugees from Ukraine.
And Mr Gray said: “The level of frustration is high, our members are doing everything they can to find out what is happening.
“The hardest part of this is telling the families in Ukraine ‘I’m sorry, the visa still hasn’t been approved’. That’s the hardest part, it is heart-breaking having to tell these families, it just hasn’t been approved because of bureaucracy.”
A UK Government spokesman said: “We are moving as quickly as possible to ensure that those fleeing Ukraine can find safety in the UK through the Ukraine Family Scheme and Homes for Ukraine.
“We have streamlined the process so valid passport holders do not have to attend in-person appointments before arriving in the UK, simplified our forms and boosted caseworker numbers, while ensuring vital security checks are carried out.
“We continue to speed up visa processing across both schemes, with almost 30,000 visas issued in the last three weeks alone and thousands more expected to come through these uncapped routes.”
