‘We are showing less humanity than 1939’
Former child refugee Lord Dubs urges Home Office to do more to help those fleeing conflict
A LABOUR peer who fled the Nazis during the Kindertransport mercy missions insists more must be done to help Ukrainians fleeing the Russian onslaught.
He told the Government yesterday: “The same sort of humanity shown to me in 1939 is not being shown to Ukrainians.”
Lord Alf Dubs, 89, a former MP and longstanding campaigner for refugee rights, was six when he was evacuated from Germanoccupied Czechoslovakia in a rescue effort organised by the late banker Sir Nicholas Winton.
Recalling his escape to the UK in 1939 thanks to the “British Schindler”, in reference to German industrialist Oskar Schindler who saved 1,200 Jews, Lord Dubs said: “The country that welcomed me was generous and kind. Now it uses warm words to disguise a total refusal to engage in a global humanitarian crisis. The UK led the way when many countries, the US included, wouldn’t take Jewish children.
“We had to leave our parents and travel alone across Europe.
“Britain did what was right at the time and it’s time the Home Secretary stopped being antiimmigrant and made it simple for these poor people to enter the country.”
More than four million refugees have left Ukraine, with 2.3 million finding refuge in Poland and other parts of Europe.
So far, the UK has granted 29,200 visas to refugees from Ukraine with 24,400 issued to those hoping to join relatives under the Ukraine Family scheme. Some 200,000 have expressed interest in hosting refugees with the Homes for Ukraine scheme. But barely 3,000 visas have been granted via this programme and many have since expressed frustration at the slowness and the “unnecessary red tape” of the visa-granting system.
Lord Dubs said that while Europe had been quick to offer “easy routes to safety” by waiving visa requirements the UK stipulated that “Ukrainians must complete a visa application”.
The peer described it as a “cumbersome process not designed to help desperate people fleeing for their lives”. He added: “What is happening now takes me back over 80 years to little Alf Dubs waving goodbye to Mum at Prague railway station not knowing if I would see her again.
“We ought to be ashamed that we are making it difficult for them to get visas and suggesting that women and children are security threats. It’s terrible and shows that the same sort of humanity shown to me in 1939 is not being shown to the Ukrainians.
“These desperate people aren’t just going to disappear. They are part of a Government scheme with registered families.
“Making refugees go through so many bureaucratic hoops to get into the UK puts this country in a poor place compared to what other countries are doing.”
He added: “It is time for the Government to lift the obstacles so we can rapidly get these refugees to safety in this country.”
One 17-year-old girl facing bombs near Kyiv has also urged the UK to revise its refugee system after applying for a visa almost a month ago.
The Sunday Express covered the case of Viktoria Koval, a law student who lives in Vinnytsia. She has failed to gain a visa despite hours of travel to application centres outside of Ukraine and the bid to join family friends in Devon has also been hampered by computer system failures and the sheer volume of applications.
Her friend Rev Jenny Kilgour, who lives near Honiton, has been in contact with her Tory MP Neil Parish, who represents Tiverton and Honiton.
And last week her 15-year-old granddaughter Sophia wrote a letter pleading with the authorities.
Sophia said: “Viktoria is like a sister to me and I would never forgive myself if something had happened to her.
“We have applied to sponsor Viktoria from here.we have called the MP’S office.we spoke to a person at the Home Office and they told us they don’t know anything about what is going on, they cannot help. This is not good enough.”
A Government spokesman said: “The changes we’ve made to the visa process are making it quicker and simpler for Ukrainians to come here.
“It is wrong to claim there are issues with the website.
“Applications are processing smoothly and the team are working round the clock to process them as quickly as possible.”