Refugees aren’t really welcome here – are they, Boris Johnson?

The British government says 200,000 people could come in under a ‘humanitarian visa’ – but only if they already have family here

Strange people, the British, and maybe not as generous as they like to make out (PA Wire)

It’s always a good idea to try and put yourself in the place of others to better understand their plight – “do as you would be done by”. That’s what empathy is all about.

So, I imagined for this exercise that I was a Ukrainian version of me, living in a medium-sized city there; getting very frightened because the running water has been cut off, the shelling has started, and there are no medicines available. Of course, I have the luxury and privilege of this being exactly what it is: a vision. The reality is all too stark for many in Ukraine.

In this vision, or version of myself, I decide to leave… what happens next?

Well, I imagine I try to get to the border and the nearest place of safety – say, Moldova. But I don’t know anyone in Moldova, or speak the language, so it’s not somewhere I think I’ll be able to work and survive that easily. Unlike many Ukrainians, I don’t have family in Poland or Germany to go to; or Britain for that matter, but I can speak English – and President Zelensky says the UK has been a good friend of Ukraine.

Bolstered by hope, I look at the British government’s special web page to see how warm a welcome I would receive as a refugee... it’s not encouraging. First, there’s the Ukrainian Family Scheme. To be eligible for this you need to be: “Applying to join or accompany your UK-based family member; and be Ukrainian or the immediate family member of a Ukrainian national who is applying to the scheme; and have been residing in Ukraine prior to 1 January 2022 (including those who have now left Ukraine).”

That’s no use to me, as a Ukrainian, because I don’t have a family member there. The British government says that 200,000 could come in under this “humanitarian visa”, but if a Ukrainian refugee isn’t related to one of the 70,000 Ukrainians already in the UK, they cannot have a humanitarian visa.

OK, but what about the “local sponsorship scheme”? This is more hopeful, as it: “Will allow sponsors, such as communities, private sponsors or local authorities, to bring those forced to flee Ukraine to the UK. There will be no limit on this scheme and we will welcome as many Ukrainians as wish to come and have matched sponsors.”

Great! They will even let me work – for up to a year, and get healthcare. But who will sponsor me when I don’t know them and they don’t know me? There is no theoretical limit on this scheme, just as the British government says; but the reality is that there certainly are conditions attached, and that will severely limit numbers.

People in Britain are welcoming, but may be wary about having a stranger in their homes, and feeling as though they must be responsible for them. It sounds fantastic, this sponsor scheme, and the British government must think it “privatises” the problem by making others responsible for funding it and running it, but in truth it would be no use to me, shivering in a makeshift camp in Moldova.

Even if someone wanted to adopt me – a random asylum seeker – in this way, they can’t so do yet. The website says: “Further details on the scheme for people will be published soon, including information on how people and organisations in the UK can apply to be sponsors.”

There are other routes into the UK, aren’t there? Yes, but a refugee will find they too are difficult to access. To apply for a routine visa you need to fill forms in, and go to the visa office in the capital city and one extra one in Poland. If you’re a pork butcher, there’s a good chance you can get a UK work visa, but for others, such as journalists, there’s no special need. The British have enough of them already.

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That’s that then. I think about going to Calais to try my luck and get a ferry, but I’ve also heard that the promised Visa Application Centre hasn’t been set up yet, and it’s just three people in an old customs shed with some crisps and Kit Kats, so I’ll not bother with that.

I can try travelling to Paris to get a visa, but as I’m not qualified for one there’s not much point anyway. If I was a Ukrainian lorry driver or fruit picker already in the UK I’d be able to stay until the end of the year; but after that I’d be deported back to Ukraine, maybe to civil war or to a totalitarian state.

I’m a Ukrainian refugee in Moldova with no family or friends in Britain and no way of even finding a “sponsor”. So here I must stay, and make the best of it. The truth is that Britain doesn’t want to help people like me. I have, though, discovered why the British have issued so few visas to Ukrainians. It’s because while the various refugee schemes sound superficially generous and “unlimited” – that is only theoretically so, and they are actually extremely difficult to access.

Only about 300 visas have been issued under the Ukraine Family Scheme so far, despite the Home Office receiving almost 9,000 applications. Strange people, the British, and maybe not as generous as they like to make out.