Holocaust survivor’s family pleads for a visa fast-track
Ninety-year-old Jewish Ukrainian is stranded in Poland awaiting Home Office approval for entry
RELATIONS of a 90-year-old Jewish Holocaust survivor stuck in Poland waiting to be processed by the British Government have pleaded with the Home Secretary to “have a heart”.
Kateryna Razumenko was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in 1931. She has survived the “Holodomor”, the man-made famine that struck Ukraine in the 1930s as a result of Stalin’s forced collectivisation policy, the Nazi invasion, the Second World War and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
However, at the age of 90, she has left her home country for the first time in her life and has become a refugee. She is now living in a Jewish community centre, just outside Warsaw, along with her 62-year-old daughter, Larysa, along with dozens of other displaced Ukrainians, but is among thousands facing lengthy delays at the hands of the Home Office.
Ms Razumenko and her daughter fled Kharkiv after a week of shelling from Russian forces. They travelled by train carrying just one handbag each, and their 15-year-old indoor cat, Solomon.
Zac Newman, 35, is married to Katya Newman, who was born in Kharkiv and who is desperately trying to bring her mother and grandmother back to the UK – where she currently resides on a spousal visa. His wife, 40, is staying in their two-bed flat in London, looking after their three-year-old twin boys.
Mr Newman, from north London, who runs a tuition agency, is in the Polish town of Otwock, just outside Warsaw, trying to bring his mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law home.
However, he was told that the first appointment in Warsaw that he could get to process their application would be on Friday afternoon. The centre is not open during weekends. This means that it would likely be a week before they could find out if their application can be processed.
He is also concerned because Ms Razumenko has never left Ukraine and, as a result, does not own an international passport.
“They’re shellshocked,” Mr Newman told The Daily Telegraph from Poland. “Larysa is supposed to be on anti-anxiety medication, which they don’t make in Poland. Kateryna is very frail and has dementia.
“My mother-in-law is just so shellshocked. She keeps saying ‘oh my God’, ‘oh my God’, often cries and sometimes just stares into space, like ‘what the f--- has happened?’. A couple of times she’s just said: ‘my home’, ‘my home’. She’s really struggling without her medication. There should be special arrangements for vulnerable people. This isn’t a completed journey for them. They can’t relax. They’re on edge. My wife and I just want them to be home with us.”
Asked if he had a message to the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, Mr Newman said: “Have a heart. All of the refugees are vulnerable, but there are some who are even more vulnerable and there should be special arrangements made for them.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian refugees stranded in the port of Calais, France, are finding the bureaucracy of applying for visas equally difficult.
“We have been waiting for about a week without an answer,” said Maya Magda, a 46-year-old from the Donbas region who is stuck in Calais with her elderly mother, mother-in-law, and 12-year-old son. “I have a cousin living in Oxfordshire who is waiting for us and worrying.”