A Ukrainian refugee faced being evicted from her emergency accommodation in Bristol because she went away for a few days to see relatives.
Mum-of-two Maryna Mishustina arrived in the UK on a family visa on May 9 and, last week, she left Bristol for a few days to see family members in Germany. However, earlier this week while she was away, she was notified by Bristol City Council that she would be moved out of her emergency accommodation due not staying there.
BristolLive understands that Ms Mishustina has now been told she can stay in the accommodation and that the council has said the situation arose because they had not been informed of her trip. The 39-year-old said: "I am glad that my housing was returned to me, but for me and my children it was a very big stress. The meeting with relatives that I went to was spoiled by such events.
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"Instead of rejoicing at the meeting, I was all the time in fear that I and my children would be left on the street. I feel I am being deprived of the opportunity, even on vacation, to visit relatives and friends located in the UK in neighbouring cities to raise mine and my children's mood - It's very sad."
Ms Mishustina's cousin Adam Raphael claimed that, prior to leaving on August 11 or 12, Ms Mishustina informed housing management to ask if it was ok and was told she needed permission. She told them she already had permission from Universal Credit, he added, but was not told who she needed to get permission from.
Mr Raphael claimed that Ms Mishustina was not given a number to call or an email address, adding that she was not told that the permission from Universal Credit wasn’t applicable to her housing.
He said: "She cannot speak any English. The conversation was translated by her eight-year-old son and the council’s representative, who knew there was a risk of my cousin becoming homeless, felt that relying on an eight-year-old who obviously only speaks English at a basic level was adequate.
"She is the very definition of a vulnerable person and Bristol Council showed not a single iota of care. One tiny bit of effort on the council’s side would have avoided this.
"Maryna and the kids went away being sure that everything she had done was right."
Mr Raphael said that, on August 16, they were notified that the family would be moved out due not staying there despite the mistranslation. The family claim they asked if her returning home straight away would avoid this, but were told no and that another family was already moving into her flat.
Ms Mishustina, who is from Kharkiv, said: "I am under stress every day because I have a husband and parents left in Ukraine. There is a constant threat to their lives, since our city has been shelled every day since February 24. Of course I worry about them.
"Now I am even worried about housing. My children have gone to school [in Bristol] and they just got used to classmates and to the team. They really enjoyed studying there. The emotional state of my children is the most important thing for me.
"I informed the job centre before leaving and asked if I would have any problems. They said that 'everything is fine and you can go'. A day or two before I left, I also alerted the apartment staff that I would be out.
"They did not warn me that I should be at home every night. I never received any notification that I was being evicted and my things were already collected by other people and sent somewhere for storage.
"We got a misunderstanding because of my lack of knowledge of the language. I could not even imagine that it was necessary to warn someone else besides the job centre."
Bristol City Council declined to comment.
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