‘The siren’s going off here. How does the 75-year-old woman living in a basement, get to her son who’s living in London?’ Dominic Raab squirms over Priti’s visa policy for Ukrainians as Russian forces close in on Kyiv
- Dominic Raab today defended the UK Government’s visa policy on Ukraine
- He was repeatedly challenged on how people are supposed to get out of Kyiv
- He said ministers ‘know difficulties on the ground make it very challenging’
Dominic Raab today suffered a skewering over the Government’s help for Ukrainian refugees amid mounting calls for ministers to offer more support to people fleeing the Russian invasion.
The Justice Secretary faced a bruising interview on Sky News with presenter Mark Austin who pressed the Cabinet minister on how vulnerable people are supposed to make it out of Ukraine.
Mr Austin, speaking in Kyiv as air raid sirens blasted, presented Mr Raab with a hypothetical example of a 75-year-old woman in the capital who has a son living in London.
He questioned if she would be eligible to come to the UK and how that journey would be facilitated.
But Mr Raab squirmed as he said ‘we know that the difficulties on the ground make it practically very challenging’ for people to get out of the country.
He also insisted that he ‘can’t comment on every potential hypothetical case’.
Dominic Raab today suffered a skewering over the Government’s help for Ukrainian refugees amid mounting calls for ministers to offer more support to people fleeing the Russian invasion
Priti Patel yesterday ruled out a visa waiver for Ukrainians fleeing the conflict but rules have been eased to make it easier for people with links to the UK to come here
The Home Secretary said that the Government is ‘giving British nationals and any person settled in the UK the ability to bring over their immediate Ukrainian family members’
Ministers are under growing pressure to make the UK’s help for refugees more generous.
Priti Patel yesterday ruled out a visa waiver for Ukrainians fleeing the conflict but rules have been changed to make it easier for people with links to the UK to come here.
The Home Secretary said the Government is ‘giving British nationals and any person settled in the UK the ability to bring over their immediate Ukrainian family members’.
However, Home Office guidance suggests that elderly parents would not qualify under the definition of immediate family.
Mr Austin suggested to Mr Raab that the UK is being a ‘bit mean-spirited’ on the issue of visas as he asked: ‘I wonder, a 75-year-old woman living now in a basement in the capital here who has her son living in London, can she go and join him?’
Mr Raab replied: ‘In terms of the question of visas and Ukrainians, the Home Secretary has set out the plans for a bespoke humanitarian scheme for Ukraine, allowing up to 100,000 to come here.
‘The dependents of British nationals in the UK, the dependents of Ukrainians living in this country and I think that is the right way to approach and it follows the wider action that we have taken.’
As air raid sirens began to sound, Mr Austin said: ‘But how does the 75-year-old woman, as the siren is just going off here, living in a basement get to her son who is living in London? Can she do that? Is she able to do that because I can’t see how she does. How does she go to Lviv, 11 hours drive away, get a visa, it just doesn’t make sense.
‘I don’t see how she can get to her son in London under the current system.’
The Deputy Prime Minister replied: ‘Well, this is a consistent feature whenever we have humanitarian asylum schemes set up.
‘We know that the difficulties on the ground make it practically very challenging. But we also know that many will get out of Ukraine, those that are fleeing through fear, and we need to be ready with our international partners, the Europeans…’
Mr Austin told the Justice Secretary that the European Union had made a more generous offer to Ukrainian refugees and asked why the UK is not doing more.
Mr Raab said: ‘I can’t comment on every potential hypothetical case. What I have just set out is the circumstances and of course we understand the difficulties of the practical situation on the ground.
‘That is common to most conflict zones, of course. We recognise that and will work with all of our international partners and the UN to try and resolve that and make sure that we continue this tradition of offering safe haven to those fleeing persecution.’
Mr Raab said many Ukrainians who are fleeing the country would ‘want to be as close to their home country as possible in order to be able to come back at some point in the future’.
But challenged again on the hypothetical case of the 75-year-old Mr Raab said: ‘Sorry, I don’t know the facts of the case but it is clear from what the Home Secretary announced yesterday that we would make that route technically open but of course it is very difficult to know how exactly she would traverse the country at that age.
‘But that is the offer the Home Secretary has made, actually it addresses the scenario you have described.’
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