The UK on Tuesday relaxed its immigration requirements for Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion, after criticism it was not doing enough to accommodate refugees.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said some 100,000 Ukrainians could enter the country for 12 months as a result of changes to criteria for close family members.
“There is no limit on the numbers eligible,” she told parliament, adding that those arriving “will be able to work and access public funds”.
Measures relaxed include language requirements and salary thresholds while also widening eligibility to grandparents, children over 18 and siblings of “any person settled in the UK”.
All applicants will still, however, have to pass security checks, she added.
London has faced calls to match an EU plan to allow Ukrainians with passports bearing biometric data to enter the bloc without a visa and stay for up to three years.
In response to the criticism, a junior minister in Patel’s department suggested on Twitter Ukrainians could still apply for seasonal worker visas designed for fruit pickers.
He later deleted his tweet.
Newspaper reports have also highlighted several cases where Ukrainians without visas have been prevented from using Eurostar train services to get from Paris to London.
But Patel called the proposals a “very generous, expansive and unprecedented package” and ruled out demands for visa waivers, given that “Russian troops are seeking to infiltrate and merge with Ukrainian forces”.
“We have a collective duty to keep the British people safe. And this approach is based on the strongest security advice,” she added.
Patel also outlined plans for Ukrainians who do not have family ties to come to the UK by being sponsored by individuals, charities, businesses and communities.
Leave to remain would also be granted for 12 months and would have no limit on numbers, she added.
‘Not forever’
Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggested on a visit to Poland earlier on Tuesday that “more than 200,000” Ukrainians could be eligible as a result of the UK scheme.
Tanya Kozlouska, 42, has lived in the UK for 22 years but her 75-year-old parents are still in Kyiv. She welcomed moves to make it easier for them to join her.
“I think it’s very good new because many civilians will be able to escape and find a place where they can stay without threat to their life,” she told AFP.
Kozlouska, a former auditor from Coventry, central England, said she is hoping her parents can reach her brother in the western city of Lviv, and from there to the Polish border.
Immigration is a controversial political issue in the UK, and tightening the country’s borders was central in the vote to leave the European Union in a 2016 referendum.
But Kozlouska said: “I think only those who have got immediate family will actually come, because most people, I think, will stay on the continent as it’s easier.
“I don’t think that people will just go to the UK just to stay here forever. I think only those with a family will come here.”