Advertisement
For £35 you can help a vendor keep themselves warm, dry, fed, earning and progressing
BUY A VENDOR SUPPORT KIT
News

Ukrainian woman told to pay for mother to come to UK despite free visas pledge

Lana Bilko's 72-year-old mum fled her home near Kyiv after the invasion - and now the Home Office are telling her to pay to enter the country.

Lana Bilko and her mother Luba. Image: Supplied

A Ukrainian woman is still being told to pay for her elderly mother to enter the UK after fleeing Kyiv, despite the Home Office announcing more free visa routes would be opened.

Officials told Lana Bilko on Wednesday morning to apply for her 72-year-old mother Luba to obtain a visitor visa – costing £600 and coming with a delay of six weeks to be processed.

Ukrainians living in the UK have told The Big Issue of frustration and delay in trying to bring their families over, describing a process of bureaucratic “ping pong” while their relatives wait in third countries.

Priti Patel, the home secretary, told MPs on Monday not to help individual constituents, but to direct those seeking help to the Home Office helpline, and on Tuesday announced an “expansive” scheme for British nationals to bring their families from Ukraine without charge.

Bilko told The Big Issue: “It isn’t a matter of cost. It’s inhumane to charge people who are fleeing the war.”

Hours after Russia announced its invasion of Poland, Bilko’s mother Luba fled her home kilometres from a military base near Kyiv, fearing it would become a target.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Carrying just a small bag, it took her two days to get to Poland, and she is now in a hostel in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Luba Bilko. Image: Supplied

In Uxbridge, Bilko and her husband have been calling the Home Office 10 times a day, trying to find a way to bring her mother over. “I can’t go to work. I’m very worried,” Bilko, a British citizen since 2008, said.

Previous suggestions included bringing Luba over illegally, and then having her apply for asylum.

In phone calls this morning, Bilko said, officials were still telling her that her mother would need a general visitor visa to come to the UK.

Bilko was told the visas cost over £600, only ensure a stay of six months and currently take six weeks to process.

“My mum is very traumatised. She doesn’t know the language. She’s staying in a hostel and there are drunk people,” Bilko said.

Advertisement

“It’s two days since she announced – even now Priti Patel is tweeting – but there’s nothing in place.”

Patel announced in parliament on Tuesday that the government would be launching a Ukrainian Family Scheme, allowing British nationals to bring a “wider group of family members” to the UK without charge.

The scheme will allow family members to stay for an initial 12 months, and no limit has been placed on the amount of people who can come over through it.

Patel ruled out visa waivers, saying the threat of Russian troops infiltrating Ukrainian forces meant security and biometric checks were still necessary.

Andrew Polyakov’s family fled Odessa on Friday. His parents, 71 and 72, along with his wife’s 65-year-old mother, his sister and nephews – six and 14 – are now staying with friends in Moldova while they wait for acceptance into the UK.

There have been sleepless nights for Polyakov, as he loses count how many times he has called the Home Office.

Advertisement

“It was like ping pong. There is not a clear instruction of what we need to do,” he said.

On Tuesday evening, after Patel’s announcement, a breakthrough came when officials took Polyakov’s own details and those of his relatives, and said a form was being submitted.

Polyakov does not know which form this is, but now expects to receive a decision by Friday.

He contrasted this to Patel telling parliament on Monday that applications were being completed “within hours”.

“We’re just sitting, waiting, and praying,” he said.

“We don’t know what decision will be made regarding my parents by the Home Office, because they were saying they have to pass a security check.”

Advertisement

Both Polyakov and Bilko specifically brought up Boris Johnson while speaking about their struggles with their families.

After Johnson attended a Ukrainian church on Saturday and said immediate family members would be able to come to the UK, Polyakov phoned his family and said it seemed like they were coming.

The news had not filtered to the people manning the Home Office hotline. “We phoned the Home Office straight away. They didn’t know anything,” he said.

“I gave my family a false hope. You can imagine how we were feeling the following day.”

For Bilko, who lives in Johnson’s constituency of Uxbridge, attempts to reach the prime minister – or his staff – through his constituency office have been fruitless.

“I understand he’s busy but he’s got people who deal with this. We’ve been ignored, full stop.”

Advertisement

“I forgave him for parties and for everything, but there’s no excuse for leaving people desperate like this.”

The Big Issue has contacted the Home Office for comment.

Advertisement

Change a vendor's life this Christmas

This Christmas, 3.8 million people across the UK will be facing extreme poverty. Thousands of those struggling will turn to selling the Big Issue as a vital source of income - they need your support to earn and lift themselves out of poverty.

Recommended for you

View all
Rents in UK are rising at highest rate in decades. Will they keep going up?
rents uk
Renting

Rents in UK are rising at highest rate in decades. Will they keep going up?

'Dismay' for disabled and vulnerable households as average annual energy bills to rise to £1,738
Blue flames from a gas hob
Energy bills

'Dismay' for disabled and vulnerable households as average annual energy bills to rise to £1,738

Mum-of-three hit with 'revenge eviction' after asking for repairs: 'It felt like the end of the world'
Hazell and her three kids faced homelessness until Shelter stepped in
Renting

Mum-of-three hit with 'revenge eviction' after asking for repairs: 'It felt like the end of the world'

Malala Yousafzai on taking on the Taliban and why 'storytelling is the soul of activism'
Malala Yousafzai
Activism

Malala Yousafzai on taking on the Taliban and why 'storytelling is the soul of activism'

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know