The situation in Ukraine is deeply concerning and I join constituents in being utterly appalled by the actions of President Putin’s regime and horrified by what is unfolding in Ukraine.
Below you will find an update of the Government’s joined up response to the evolving situation.
Refugees
I have discussed the refugee situation with the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister. The Home Office has been working with the Ukraine Government to come up with a system which balances the need to help refugees and also respects the requests of the Ukrainian Government that we do not destabilise the country even further. Details on the Ukrainian Family Scheme and 'Homes for Ukraine' scheme have now been published, which I have summarised below.
Ukrainian Family Scheme
The Ukrainian Family Scheme allows family members of British nationals, UK settled persons and certain others to come or stay in the UK. The scheme is free and does not include any salary or language requirements. Individuals are able to live, work and study in the UK and access public funds.
Applicants to the Scheme must:
- 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 on or immediately before 1 January 2022 (including those who have now left Ukraine).
Application process:
- If an applicant holds a valid Ukrainian international passport or an expired Ukrainian international passport with a formal extension stamp issued by the Ukrainian government, they will need to complete an application online, but do not need to attend an appointment at a visa application centre (VAC) to give biometric information.
- Once an application has been processed, they will receive an official permission letter from UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) confirming that they can travel to the UK.
- The permission letter will allow the applicant to board a plane or other form of transport to the UK.
- When they arrive in the UK, they will need to show their permission letter to Border Force officers who will endorse their passport with a 6-month entry stamp.
- The 6-month entry stamp is evidence of right to work, study and claim benefits in the UK.
- Those arriving will need to submit biometrics within 6 months of arrival in the UK to extend their stay for up to 3 years and be issued with a biometric residence permit (BRP) as evidence of immigration status. The process can be started online.
- If applicants do not hold a valid Ukrainian international passport, they will need to book and attend an appointment at a visa application centre.
- If they have a Ukrainian domestic passport or ID card, they will need to book and attend an appointment at a visa application centre.
- They will need to have their photograph and fingerprints taken at a VAC as part of the application.
- Children under the age of 5 who do not hold a valid Ukrainian international passport will not have their fingerprints taken but will still need to book and attend a VAC appointment and have a digital photograph taken.
- Ukrainians already in the UK can either extend their visa or switch to another immigration route, where eligible, even if their visa does not normally allow them to do so.
Full details and how to apply to the Ukrainian Family Scheme can be found here.
Homes for Ukraine
The bespoke Homes for Ukraine scheme will offer a route to those who want to come to the UK who have someone here willing to provide them with a home. Sponsors should provide accommodation for as long as they are able, but there is a minimum expectation of 6 months. Someone is eligible for the scheme if they are a Ukrainian national or the immediate family member of a Ukrainian national, and were resident in Ukraine prior to 1 January 2022.
People arriving under this scheme will be able to:
- Live and work in the UK for up to three years
- Access healthcare, benefits, employment support, education, and English language tuition
The scheme will open on Friday 18 March for visa applications from Ukrainians and immediate family members who already have named people willing to sponsor them. People wanting to be sponsors who do not know anyone personally fleeing Ukraine can also record their interest in being a sponsor. People can record their interest as an individual or as an organisation (for example charity, business, community group). There will be no limit or cap on the sponsorship route. The UK will welcome as many Ukrainians, with their immediate family members, as wish to come and for whom there are sponsors.
When will sponsors and Ukrainians be able to apply for the sponsorship scheme?
- Phase One of the scheme will open on Friday 18 March for visa applications from Ukrainians who have named people willing to sponsor them.
- People or organisations wanting to be sponsors who do not know anyone personally fleeing Ukraine have been able to register their interest in being a sponsor from 14 March. Anyone registering online on Homes for Ukraine will be kept updated.
- More detailed guidance will be published in the coming days. Guidance will include information on:
- the checks to be undertaken on both sponsors and people seeking to come to the UK
- information around the status of the arrangement people will be entering into (including expected accommodation standards)
- the role of local councils in providing wider support.
- The Government will also provide a full support pack for sponsors, with signposting to relevant services and where they can get help.
Who can provide support?
- Anyone in the UK (of any nationality and any immigration status providing they have at least six months leave to remain in the UK) with a spare room, or separate self-contained accommodation that is unoccupied can come forward to help.
- Accommodation must be available for at least 6 months, be fit for people to live in, and suitable for the number of people to be accommodated.
- Named individuals can offer residential rooms or unoccupied self-contained residential units to a specific person or people, and charities, NGOs may be able to help people to make contact with a named person.
- In the future, Government will work to help organisations to also sponsor individuals, but they are starting the first phase of the scheme with named individual contacts.
Are people able to state any preferences?
- In Phase One of the scheme, it will be for the sponsor to match with a particular named person or a named family.
- People should consider what sort of support they are best able to provide and who they are most comfortable to support.
- Everyone who applies to this scheme will be subject to a range of checks, including those in the sponsoring household and those coming to the UK.
Financial assistance
- There will be an optional ‘thank you’ payment of £350 per month to people who can accommodate one or more household (subject to the accommodation they have).
- The thank you payment is limited to one payment per residential address.
- People will continue to receive payments for as long as they sponsor somebody for up to 12 months. This payment will be made in arrears.
- Eligibility checks will be carried out which may include a visit to people’s home.
- Funding at a rate of £10,500 per person will be provided to local authorities, with an additional top-up for child education, to enable them to provide wider support to families to rebuild their lives and fully integrate into communities.
What checks will be undertaken?
- Those arriving will have met standard security checks. Sponsors will also be subject to checks.
- Those in the sponsoring households will also be subject to security checks and may be subject to safeguarding checks too. Checks may be carried out on a rolling basis.
- Local councils will want to check that the accommodation offered is appropriate in the circumstances.
How to register
- There is a short form on Homes for Ukraine. Applicants will be kept updated after recording their interest.
- If an applicant already has a named contact whom they wish to sponsor they should get in touch with them directly and prepare to fill in a visa application with all of their details and those of the applicant. The visa application route will go live on Friday 18 March.
- If the applicant doesn’t currently know anyone whom they wish to sponsor, they may wish to get in touch with charities, faith groups or local community organisations who are starting to make connections between individuals.
What role can organisations play?
- Organisations can in the first instance record their interest.
- Charities, businesses and faith and community groups will have a big role to play connecting individuals who wish to sponsor and wish to be sponsored and of course providing an excellent welcome to individuals arriving to the UK.
- In future, Government will work to help organisations to directly sponsor individuals, but they are starting with named individual contacts.
Who is eligible for the scheme?
- Ukrainian nationals or the immediate family member of a Ukrainian national, and were resident in Ukraine prior to 1 January 2022 are eligible.
- The scheme is open for adults and children within family units.
What immigration status, right to work and access to public services/benefits are available?
- Those arriving will be granted leave to remain in the UK for 3 years.
- They will be able to work and access benefits and public services – including healthcare, schooling (including state schools).
How to apply
- From Friday 18 March, eligible Ukrainians can apply from outside the UK under this scheme to seek to come to the UK.
- Either they or their sponsor completes a single form which collects their details and the details of their sponsor.
- If they hold a valid Ukrainian international passport, they will not need to attend a Visa Application Centre. Children do not need a passport.
- If they do not hold a valid Ukrainian international passport, they will need to book and attend an appointment at a visa application centre.
- It is free of charge to apply.
What security checks will I have to do?
- Security checks for both them and their sponsor will be undertaken as part of the visa application process.
- Biometric checks will be made after they arrive in the UK to avoid delays.
Full details and how to apply to the Homes for Ukraine scheme can be found here.
Taken together, the Home Office estimates these moves are expected to benefit all Ukrainians already in the UK and up to 200,000 more from the Ukraine (a figure that has no limit). To those who take the view that this country is less generous to refugees than the EU countries, the same view was espoused on Afghanistan. We have exceeded our aim of resettling 5,000 Afghan nationals in the first year of the Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme in addition to relocating over 7,500 under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy. We have allowed over 75,000 people from Hong Kong to come to this country. This is a generous country and would be more so if social media reflected the facts.
Humanitarian Support: What can constituents do?
In addition to directly helping refugees to settle in the UK, we are providing £220m in emergency and humanitarian aid for Ukraine. This tailored package follows conversations between our Prime Minister and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.
The funding will help aid agencies respond to the deteriorating humanitarian situation, creating a lifeline for Ukrainians with access to basic necessities and medical supplies such as medicines, syringes, dressings and wound care packs. UK Government humanitarian experts have also deployed to the region to support those fleeing the violence in Ukraine.
Constituents have been contacting me to ask how they can help. If you want to donate money, there are a number of charities providing humanitarian relief in Ukraine. You can Donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Appeal. This is the recommended route, via the UK’s trusted charities and aid agencies. The UK Government will match public donations to this appeal pound-for-pound up to £25 million. Donating cash through our trusted DEC charities and aid organisations, rather than donating goods, is the best way to help. Cash can be transferred quickly to areas where it is needed. Individuals, and aid organisations, can use it to buy what is most needed. We are advised that unsolicited donations of goods, although well-meant, can obstruct supply chains and delay more urgent life-saving assistance from getting through.
The government will be launching a new sponsorship scheme to make sure that Ukrainians who have been forced to flee their homes have a route to safety. The scheme will match people, charities, businesses and community groups to Ukrainians who do not have family ties to the UK. Details of the scheme and how you can apply will be published shortly.
Sending in British Troops
The brave men and women of Ukraine are enduring the barrage and have, so far, held their cities from Russian invaders. They are fighting for their country, for their continued future as a free and independent nation. It is only right that the UK supports in an appropriate way that does not escalate the conflict.
As Ukraine is not part of NATO, the Government’s position is that of the NATO countries as a whole; sending our armed forces, or indeed those of any other country, into Ukraine would trigger a war across Europe. With Putin’s blatant threat of nuclear weapons, this must be avoided. The Prime Minister told me that it was last March when he signed off the application from the Secretary of State for Defence to supply arms and training to the Ukrainian Government. We have been at their side for longer than many other countries but our troops will not be engaged in direct combat with Russian troops.
This would require Parliamentary approval and it would not be granted because Parliament and Government are united on the view that we support the Ukrainian authorities but we will not directly enter into fighting with the Russians.
Sanctions
The UK’s package of sanctions are the strongest economic measures we have ever enacted against Russia and will have destabilising impacts on President Putin and Russia. It is important that we work with our allies to cripple Russia’s economic development both in the short and long term.
More than 300 companies and oligarchs at the heart of Putin’s regime have been hit with sanctions worth hundreds of billions of pounds, asset freezes and travel bans. This includes Russia’s second largest bank (VTB) and Russia’s defence giant (Rostec). Sanctions will also soon be implemented on 571 members of the Duma and Federation Council who sanctioned the invasion of Ukraine.
Our Government is working with allies to go further and it has now been agreed that a number of Russian banks will be excluded from the SWIFT financial system. The UK was an early advocate of this exclusion but we had to first get the other SWIFT countries to agree. This will remove Russia from trillions of dollars-worth of transactions. Effectively, Russia’s international trade will only occur via fax or phone. When Iran was cut out of the system in 2012, it lost 30% of its trade. The assets of the Russian central bank have been frozen, limiting Russia’s access to its overseas reserve.
Restrictions have been introduced to prohibit people in the UK from undertaking financial transactions involving the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the Russian National Wealth Fund and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation.
Legislation will shortly be laid before Parliament to ban the Russian state and Russia’s economically vital industries and companies from raising finance on the UK’s money markets.
The Government has also introduced a set of measures to significantly strengthen our trade restrictions against Russia to include a prohibition on the export of a range of high-end and critical technical equipment and components in sectors including electronics, telecommunications and aerospace. The Transport Secretary has banned Aeroflot and all other Russian commercial and private jets from the UK airspace.
The result of these global sanctions has been growing queues at Russian cashpoints, a doubling of interest rates in Russia to 20%, seen the Russians close their own stock market and sent the Russian rouble down by a fifth.
The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Bill will be expedited through all its Commons stages on Monday 7 March to strengthen the sanctions regime further. The Government is looking for swift passage in the Lords in order to get Royal Assent as soon as possible.
And finally
The measures above are bound to change as the circumstances change. This may mean more humanitarian and refugee support, more sanctions and asset seizures and further support to weaponise the Ukrainian forces. Our aim is to cripple the Russian economy in order for change to occur in Russia. I am afraid that this will have an impact on our own economy, and our own cost of living. A failure to take this drastic action will have even greater ramifications if the despot Putin is not stopped. Our lead against Russia has been widely accepted as having driven a global response. I hope we can stand united in this country and step back from political division.