Ukraine: UK visa process dehumanising, says relative

Emily Radford is helping the cousin of her Ukrainian wife come to the UK

The British wife of a Ukrainian woman has said the visa process for family members fleeing the war is "dehumanising".

Emily Radford said her partner, a British citizen, had gone to Poland to bring her cousin's family to Sheffield.

But she said the three-week visa process had been "insane" and needlessly bureacratic.

The government said it had streamlined the scheme but security checks were vital.

Under the Ukraine Family Scheme, those fleeing the war are eligible for a UK visa if they are joining a family member based in the country.

Ms Radford, 39, has been helping the group - which includes four children aged 17. 12, eight and four, with the application from home.

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After a long wait, their visas were approved on Wednesday but Ms Radford was critical of the process.

She was particularly upset that child applicants had to answer questions about terrorist affiliations and military history.

"They've treated what are primarily women and children as threats first rather than people to help," she said.

"That's not to say that if it was men it would be different - maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't.

"But it's women and kids... I had to answer for a four-year-old: 'Are you a terrorist? Have you ever been in the armed forces?'

"Why are you asking those questions? It should literally just be: 'Are you a child? Who is your mum? OK, we'll sort you out when you're here and we can have questions with you then if we need to."'

The 39-year-old hoped the family would fly to the UK on Friday

Ms Radford said her wife, whose name she asked to be withheld, found the British visa application difficult.

"She said that the Polish people have been wonderful, but as soon as she interacted with British bureaucracy, she felt terrible, which is really hard for me to hear as a British person," Ms Radford said.

She hopes her Ukrainian relatives will be able to fly to the UK on later to join she and her wife in Sheffield.

A government spokesperson 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 continue to speed up visa processing across both schemes, with 25,500 visas issued in the last three weeks alone and thousands more expected to come through these uncapped routes.

"While we have streamlined the process, simplified our forms and boosted case worker numbers, vital security checks are needed to protect our borders and the British people from hostile state actors from Russia who would cynically take advantage of the support we are rightly providing to people fleeing Ukraine."