The Times - UK (2022-04-13)

12 Wednesday April 13 2022 | the times

NewsNews News War in UkraineWar in Ukraine

Thousands of Ukrainians applying to
come to the UK under the Homes for
Ukraine scheme have been waiting in
limbo after a Home Office glitch left
them mistakenly believing that their
applications had been submitted.
Those registering to come as a family
must fill out a separate visa application
form for each member, as well as stating
who they are travelling to the UK with
on each of the forms. However, Home
Office guidance telling people of this
was only published on March 29, mean-
ing that those who applied beforehand
were left in the dark.
The confusion has left many waiting
to hear back from the Home Office
without realising that visa applications
for other family members have not
been submitted, leaving them in limbo.
The Times has heard from several
Ukrainian refugees who have subse-
quently inquired about their applica-
tion, to be told that only one of their
family members has applied for the
scheme because they did not submit a
form for each of them.
A government source admitted that
this problem had affected “thousands”.
One of the UK hosts who discovered
the glitch is Christopher Road, 73, a re-
tired solicitor. He is sponsoring a visa
for Halyna Khalanych and her 16-year-
old son Dmytro. They had been due to
arrive in the UK last night after submit-
ting five visa applications but were hit
with a last-minute hiccup and did not
board their flight, leaving them strand-
ed at Poland’s Rzeszow airport having
travelled from Ukraine.
Road was told that a Home Office im-
migration official prevented Khalan-
ych boarding her flight because her
passport number had been mis-
transcribed, with somebody changing a
Z on her passport to a 2. It is not known
who made the error but last night Road
said: “This is a total nightmare. It gets
worse and worse.”
It was the latest obstacle that he and
the two refugees have faced since they
first submitted an application on March
18, the day that the Homes for Ukraine
scheme opened. Khalanych formerly
worked as the Roads’s cleaner while she

Thousands

of refugees

left in limbo

by red tape

Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor and her husband were saving up money
to build a home in Ukraine.
Having read the Home Office gui-
dance, Road, who lives in Hammer-
smith, west London, with his wife,
Zofia, submitted a single application for
the mother and child. However, a week
later, on March 25, Road was told that
he needed separate applications for
each of them so he re-submitted their
applications. The next day he called the
Home Office helpline, which is run by
the private contractor TLScontact, to
check on the progress of the applica-
tions. Road was told that they were un-
able to update him as they did not have
access to the Home Office database.
On March 26, Road had to start from
scratch again, because supporting
documents he had received from Kha-
lanych proving their residence in
Ukraine and Dmytro’s birth certificate
could not just be added to their applica-
tions. Road set about submitting new
applications for Khalanych and Dmyt-
ro, the fourth and fifth time he had sub-
mitted what he described as the “labori-
ous” list of details asked by the Home
Office visa application form. He decid-
ed to ignore an “incredulous” request
for a letter of consent for Dmytro’s trav-
el from his father, who was away from
home fighting in the Ukrainian army.
While he received acknowledge-
ments from the Home Office that
application numbers four and five had
been received, he was not given any
timetable for when they would be proc-
essed. To Road’s relief, the visas for
Khalanych and Dmytro and their “per-
missions to travel” came through last
Tuesday, two and a half weeks after first
applying. The Home Office had over-
looked the fact that his supporting
documents were neither translated into
English nor included his father’s con-
sent. Road believes that he succeeded
only because he made “a fuss” by con-
tacting his local MP, the leader of his
local council and the refugee cam-
paigner Lord Dubs.
Road said: “I have been told that the
permissions to travel wouldn’t have
come through even after the delay I ex-
perienced if I hadn’t persevered.”
The Home Office has yet to respond
to a request to comment.

The race to catch a train at Slovyansk central station in the Donbas region. Civilians have been told to evacuate west in

Russia has raised its terror alert level to

“high” in six regions near to its borders

with Ukraine, after railway lines were

damaged in an apparent act of sabo-

tage.

The governor of the Belgorod region,

which borders the Ukrainian provinces

of Kharkiv and Sumy, released photo-

graphs yesterday of the line that runs

between the two countries, which

appeared to have been damaged by

explosives on the Russian side.

Russia terror alert raises false flag fears

Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the

Belgorod region, announced that a rail-

way line near the town of Shebekino

had been severely damaged.

In recent days there have also been

local reports of explosions at an oil

facility and an ammunition depot near

Belgorod, where trenches have also

been dug in case of a Ukrainian military

incursion.

It is not clear who was responsible,

however, and both Ukraine and Russia

have accused each other planning

“false flag” operations that could

potentially justify an escalation in the

conflict.

Kursk, Belgorod, Crimea, Krasno-

dar, Voronezh and Bryansk all elevated

threat levels to “yellow,” this week, the

second-highest in a three-tier system.

In Belarus opposition activists have

been co-ordinating attacks on the

country’s railway lines, which have

crippled Russian supply lines into

Ukraine. Unlike in Belgorod, however,

these attacks were nearly all carried out

by setting fire to electric relay cabinets

by the side of the tracks.

Tom Ball

The size of the British army should be
increased following Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine, the chief of the general staff
has said.
In a rare intervention, General Sir
Mark Carleton-Smith, the outgoing
head of the army, said he believed that
more money should be spent on a force
bigger than the planned 73,000 sol-
diers.
Ben Wallace, the defence secretary,
announced last year that the army

Army chief fires farewell salvo over troop cuts in light of war

would shrink by 9,000 troops by 2025,

reducing it to its smallest size since the

Napoleonic era.

Carleton-Smith told the Policy

Exchange think tank: “I think our

structure and the growing shopping list

of potential outputs in the wake of the

redefinition of European defence and

deterrence, which I am sure Ukraine

heralds, I think is going to demand

more of the field force and I would like

to see greater investment in a larger

army.”

Carleton-Smith suggested the army

did not support cuts to the service when

it fed into the defence review published

in March last year. He added that Presi-

dent Putin’s invasion of Ukraine meant

the review may “merit reappraisal and

additional scrutiny”.

He said: “The figure that came out of

the review of 72,500 — subsequently

amended to 73,000 — was not one that

was predicated on most of the experi-

mentation and analysis that under-

pinned the army’s proposition and con-

tribution to the review.

“But we also have to accept that in

terms of building a wider, balanced

force across not just the traditional

environmental domains of land, sea

and air, that we needed greater invest-

ment in the new, novel, man-made

domains, particularly cyber.”

At the event, John Spellar, a Labour

MP who sits on the Commons defence

committee, said: “Frankly at the mo-

ment I would settle for maintaining the

size of the army rather than the Trea-

sury-driven cuts which have been criti-

cised right the way across the board in

the House of Commons.” He said the

war in Ukraine showed “the folly of that

policy and the need for a very rapid re-

visiting of it”.

It is unusual for a serving chief to

make comments that appear to criticise

decisions made by the government.

General Sir Patrick Sanders, who

oversees cyber, special forces and mili-

tary intelligence in his role as head of

strategic command, is replacing

Carleton-Smith in June.

Carleton-Smith had interviewed for

the role of the head of the armed forces

but was not successful.

Larisa Brown Defence Editor