Ukraine war: 300 Ukrainians get visas via new scheme, says UK

The number of Ukrainian refugees granted visas under the UK's new scheme has risen from about 50 on Sunday to 300, the Home Office has said.

It said 17,700 applications to re-join family members in Britain have been started, and it has increased staff and appointments.

People in Calais have been told to go to Paris to apply for their visa.

And some Ukrainians told the BBC they faced a wait of more than a week just for an appointment in the French capital.

More than 1.7 million people have now fled the war in Ukraine - most of them to Poland.

Unlike the European Union - which is allowing Ukrainians three-year residency without a visa - the UK has retained controls on entry, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying it was "sensible" to "have some basic ability to check who is coming in and who isn't".

There are two main routes to a visa for refugees from the war, requiring them either to have family in the UK, or a designated UK sponsor for their application.

After criticism from France that the UK's approach showed a "lack of humanity", Home Secretary Priti Patel said she had "surged a Home Office team" to help at Calais - and denied anyone had been turned back at the border.

But the BBC found a Home Office presence at a local administrative building disappeared on Monday morning, while a sign at the hostel where many refugees were staying directed them to Brussels or Paris for visa applications.

The Home Office said in a statement there was no visa application centre in Calais and urged people not to travel there.

In its latest progress update on refugee visas, the Home Office repeated its claim that it was the first visa scheme to launch since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

It said staff have been "surged" at appointment centres across Europe - including in Poland, Romania, Hungary, Moldova and the Czech Republic - as well as in the UK in order to process applications as quickly as possible, while maintaining "essential security checks".

Since the Ukraine Family Scheme launched on 4 March, 8,900 applications have been submitted, while 4,300 applicants have made appointments to submit their biometric details.

Of these, 640 applications have been confirmed, the Home Office says, and 300 visas have been issued so far.

The UK has previously expanded its visa scheme for refugees, widening the range of family connections allowing Ukrainians to apply and creating a second route for UK-based organisations to sponsor applications - with details to be set out this week.

It has also waived fees for Ukrainians.

But when questioned on Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson did not confirm suggestions that the UK would open up a third option for people without ties to the UK, saying only that it would have "a very generous and open approach".

Amnesty International UK suggested "history is repeating itself" after the response to last year's crisis in Afghanistan.

Refugee and migrant rights director Steve Valdez-Symonds said the Home Office was "once again too slow and too bureaucratic in response to a refugee crisis that almost everyone saw coming".

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the government should be offering a "simple route to sanctuary" for people in danger, and said the Home Office is "in a complete mess".