Delay for refugees slammed by MP

Paperwork holds up arrival of Ukrainians

Ukrainian refugees set for Stirling have been delayed according to new figures despite UK Government officials accepting visa applications.

The latest data from the Home Office related to the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme has revealed that 105 visas have now been issued for applicants in Stirling out of 111 applications.

However, only 59 of those accepted have actually arrived in the city since the beginning of the scheme.

It was launched on March 18 in response to the crisis in Ukraine, with named people in the UK able to apply for visas to bring a visitor from the country to their own homes.

It is open to all Ukrainian nationals who were resident in the country at the turn of the year, as well as their immediate family members and children.

The delays seen for Stirling residents keen to open up their homes are reflected in the broader trend across Scotland as a whole, with the figures - which cover the period up to May 24 revealing that 1,654 Ukrainian refugees had arrived in the country out of 3,075 successful visas.

When added to the visa applications supported by the Scottish Government, the data shows that 3,105 Ukrainians have arrived in Scotland through the scheme in total - out of 9,591 approved visa applications.

The delays have been blasted by Stirling MP Alyn Smith, who called for the UK Government to reduce the “needlessly complicated” paperwork associated with the scheme in order to allow more locals to welcome in refugee families.

Mr Smith said: “The UK government could have and should have done the same as all EU countries - simply waive the paperwork for three years - but instead they created a needlessly complicated paperchase their own officials have struggled to deal with and while my team has worked flat out to help people through the system it has been made all the harder by the UK government’s decisions.

“The people in Stirling have stepped up and I pay tribute to them, the UK government hasn’t.”

They created a needlessly complicated paperchase to deal with