Parts of Mariia Ostapenko and her sister Anastasiia’s home city, Dnipro, were destroyed by bombs during the early stages of the Russian invasion.
They packed their bags and fled to neighboring Poland, where hundreds of thousands of other refugees had already arrived. However, the sisters were fortunate, as their mother had a friend in the United Kingdom who informed them about the Homes for Ukraine program and helped them find a sponsor.
They were each offered a room at the 68-year-old Jennifer Lowry’s residence shortly after the scheme was announced in mid-March, but three months later, due to repeated UK government delays, they are stranded in Switzerland.
The Home Office will not issue a visa to the 15-year-old sister because she is considered an unaccompanied minor, for reasons Mariia and Anastasiia, both 23, cannot fathom.
“They are extremely vulnerable,” Jennifer said. “We are particularly concerned if they are forced to relocate because visa processing keeps getting delayed; being young and mentally exhausted, they could fall victim to predators.”
Anastasiia stated that communication from the British government has been “very poor,” and Jennifer stated that the delays have put the sisters in “danger.” The sisters were left in limbo for months regarding the status of their visa application.
In the interim, they have moved from one temporary accommodation to another, but their current host in Switzerland cannot keep them indefinitely, and the sisters are concerned that they will be forced to live on the streets in a foreign country where they do not speak the language and have no friends.
Mariia and Anastasiia are among what is believed to be hundreds of Ukrainian refugees in the same predicament, according to the Guardian; they fled their war-torn home country in hopes of finding safety with British families but are now stranded across Europe.
The government states that unaccompanied minors are ineligible for the program due to safety concerns, but has not advised the sisters on what to do.
At Mariia’s visa appointment, a letter from their parents granting Anastasiia legal guardianship over her younger sister was presented, but it appears to have made little difference.
They claim that they heard nothing for five weeks until Anastasiia learned how to file an official complaint with the British embassy in Paris, which promptly informed her that her visa had been approved but that Mariia’s could not be processed.
The sisters stated that they do not know what to do next as they pleaded for compassion from the British government.
Anastasiia said: “We do not comprehend why the legal document [from their parents] naming me as legal guardian is accepted in Germany, Switzerland, and France, but not in Britain.
“This notion that Britain must ensure the placement [with a sponsor] is safe leaves a minor in countries where nobody is waiting for them, as opposed to Britain, where someone is eager to accept them.”
She added, “This policy makes young people more vulnerable.”
The sisters traveled tens of thousands of miles across Europe, staying with kind strangers as they awaited the processing of their visas, first from Ukraine to Poland, then to Germany, and finally to Paris and Switzerland.
Mariia, who was still in secondary school when her home city was bombed, hopes to enroll in a school in the United Kingdom and learn English, whereas Anastasiia, who recently earned her bachelor’s degree, wants to find a job in accounting.
They are too afraid to return to Dnipro, where their parents still reside, due to the Russian advance, and believe they will soon be homeless if they cannot reach the United Kingdom.
Dnipro is only 86 kilometers from Zaporizhzhia, a large southern region of Ukraine that Russian forces have dominated since the beginning of the war.
Despite the constant threat, their parents are unable to flee because their father is prohibited from leaving. After all, he is of fighting age, and her mother stayed because she lacks travel documents.
A government spokesperson stated that “it is tragic that children have been caught up in Putin’s war” and that the policy on unaccompanied minors was being reviewed, but did not offer a solution for the sisters.
This statement continued: “We are responsible for ensuring the safety of children, and as the public rightly expects, we have put in place robust procedures to protect them once they arrive in the country, working closely with local governments throughout.
“At this time, only minors who are traveling with or reuniting with a parent or legal guardian in the United Kingdom are eligible for Homes for Ukraine. However, as we have always stated, we review eligibility for all of our programs.”
Last week, Labour MP Tulip Siddiq told Boris Johnson about a 13-year-old Ukrainian girl traveling with her 18-year-old sister who was forced to return to her besieged Ukrainian hometown during Prime Minister’s Questions.
The older sister’s application was approved within three weeks, while the younger sister received no response, according to Mark Falcon, who sponsored the sisters to live in his family’s residence.
He told that he is “ashamed and embarrassed” by the United Kingdom’s handling of the situation, while the parents of the girls are “bewildered” by it.
They sent a statement in Ukrainian and English granting permission for the older sister to represent the younger sister, but the Home Office rejected the application.
The older sister was able to resettle at her sponsor’s home in London, whereas the mother of the adolescent was forced to collect her and return to Ukraine.
Ms. Siddiq asked the Prime Minister if “returning vulnerable children to a war zone is the correct policy.”
The Labour MP acknowledged “the dangers of child trafficking” but stated that the Home Office must adopt a “more sophisticated approach” because its “cruel policy led to a 13-year-old girl being separated from her 18-year-old sister and forced to return to her war-torn hometown.
She went on: “Numerous children are placed in grave danger by the government’s insistence that they return to regions under constant Russian attack. It is time for the prime minister to demonstrate his or her leadership and resolve this issue.”
In response, the prime minister declared: “Obviously, I understand her outrage over the case she mentions, and I am aware that the home secretary will investigate.
“I must admit, however, that I find the track record of this country in processing well over 120,000 visas for Ukrainians to be quite commendable. I appreciate everyone who contributed to this effort.”
According to the most recent Home Office statistics, the United Kingdom has received 106,900 visa applications from Ukrainians hoping to enter through the Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme, and 48,700 applications through a separate family scheme.
However, only 88,000 have been granted visas through Homes for Ukraine, and only 51,800 have arrived in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Falcon stated that the government is “trying to boast about the number of visas processed” but is ignoring the number of unaccompanied minors who are forced to remain abroad.
The United Nations (UN) reports that more than 14 million people have fled their homes since Russia launched its bloody invasion of Ukraine.
Nearly seven million are in neighboring nations, while eight million are internally displaced in Ukraine.
77,200 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in the United Kingdom; this number includes applicants for the sponsorship scheme and the family scheme.
