Only 760 visas have been granted for Ukrainians to come to the UK, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said.
The cabinet minister defended the UK’s record on providing a haven for Ukrainians as he confirmed 22,000 applications are being processed by the Home Office.
The UK Home Office is facing mounting criticism over the way it has handled the refugee crisis and is under pressure to go much further and faster as two million fled Ukraine.
The Minister insisted Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky did not want his countrymen travelling too far from their homeland.
He said: “No country has given more humanitarian aid to Ukraine than the UK, in the world. We have given £400 million, in addition the British people have been incredibly generous as well."
Shapps said the UK wanted Ukrainians to have their paperwork in order before arriving at Calais.
The Transport Secretary said: “If people are travelling across, the idea is they get their visa before they get to the border, to the coast."
“Lille will be a possibility, Paris, Berlin, Brussels and other locations. For people already in Calais, “I know that the Home Secretary is working very hard on this."
Yvette Cooper, Labour’s shadow home secretary, called for the Government to issue emergency visas in light of the fast-changing situation in Ukraine with over two million people now on the move.
She told the BBC: “Offer emergency visas that can be issued really swiftly, rather than people having to fill in these 14-page forms or rather than having to upload documents."
Cooper added: “It just beggars belief that people are being asked to do this when they have fled a war zone, when they have had to leave everything behind, when they have been risking life and limb, in the face of Russian bombardment.
“People shouldn’t be treated like this.”
In other developments:
- Shapps made it a criminal offence for Russian planes to enter UK airspace.
- The Ministry of Defence said Ukrainian cities were continuing to suffer heavy shelling but the assault on capital Kyiv had failed to make major progress.
- Foreign secretary Liz Truss is set to meet with officials in Washington to discuss further support for Ukraine.
To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here.
