Home Office does not know what to do with fleeing minors, claims lawyer

THE UK Government has paused visa applications for unaccompanied minors fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine because it still has not decided how to deal with such applications, an immigration lawyer has said.

Current advice for the Homes For Ukraine scheme states that under-18s “must be applying as part of a family unit which includes their parent or legal guardian” to be eligible.

But this guidance did not appear on the gov.uk website until the middle of April, some weeks after the scheme went live on March 18, leading to confusion and accusations of a “national scandal” that the Home Office had moved the goalposts.

Mala Savjani, an immigration solicitor for the charity Here For Good based at Wilson Solicitors LLP, said: “We’ve been seeing applications from unaccompanied minors being paused and not decided, especially ones that were submitted in the second half of March and we would have absolutely expected decisions on those applications by now. It seems as though the Home Office is purposefully not making those decisions because they haven’t actually decided how to deal with those applications.”

PA has spoken to several UK citizens whose attempts to offer homes to unaccompanied minors have stalled, as those affected have described the Government’s approach as “beyond cruel”.

Julie Elliot, 62, hopes to welcome 16-year-old refugee Timothy Tymoshenko, who is severely autistic and non-verbal. Ms Elliot and her husband Roger, 66, have 14 children together – four biological and 10 adopted. Their adopted children all have disabilities and eight of them still live at the couple’s home in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire. The pair worked as nurses before becoming full-time carers to their adopted family, being made MBEs in 2016 for services to children.

Ms Elliot has now been made Timothy’s legal guardian by his mother Anna, and is considering travelling to Ukraine to care for Timothy as she has been given no update on his visa application made on March 30.

“Why offer with one hand and take it away with the other? It’s beyond cruel,” Ms Elliot said of the UK Government’s policy. “It would have been kinder not to offer and then all of these people could have found refuge in other places.”

A UK Government spokesperson said: “Due to safeguarding concerns, unaccompanied minors are only eligible under the Homes for Ukraine scheme if they are reuniting with a parent or legal guardian in the UK.”