Johnson says UK must have security checks as Ukraine calls for visa relaxation

By Andrew MacAskill and Michael Holden

Nd addLONDON -Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated on Wednesday Britain wanted to hold out safety checks on Ukrainian refugees, after dealing with calls to chill out visa situations for these fleeing relentless bombardment by invading Russian forces.

In contrast to many nations elsewhere in Europe which have accepted Ukrainian refugees with out visas, Britain has required them, and there was widespread criticism that this process has been too gradual and bureaucratic.

Britain has granted over 700 visas to Ukrainians for the reason that begin of the warfare. By comparability, Poland, a neighbour of Ukraine, has taken in additional than 1.2 million Ukrainians.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ukraine’s ambassador to London referred to as on the British authorities to chill out visa situations for folks in what has develop into the quickest and largest circulation of refugees in Europe since World Battle Two.

Johnson informed parliament the visa checks had been wanted as a result of the Kremlin had singled out Britain over its stance on the disaster in Ukraine.

“There are some individuals who wish to dispense with checks altogether and easily to wave folks by. I do assume that's irresponsible,” he stated. “We're going to be as beneficiant as we will presumably be, however we should have checks.”

Chatting with the British parliament’s Residence Affairs committee, Ukrainian Ambassador Vadym Prystaiko stated he understood safety checks had been required however requested for the method to be simplified.

“Most individuals don’t have passports with them, their houses had been bombed, we’re not printing passports in my embassy,” he stated. “In actuality, if in case you have a one-year-old, it's positively not a terrorist. So you possibly can strike them out of the checklist of potential terrorist dangers.”

Prystaiko, who has been Ukraine’s high diplomat in Britain since 2020, stated acquiring visas to Britain had been tough even earlier than Russia invaded, and that his spouse was initially denied a visa when he was appointed.

The federal government has defended its stance, citing a 2018 nerve agent assault on a former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal within the English metropolis of Salisbury which Britain blames on three Russian army intelligence officers who entered the nation posing as vacationers utilizing pretend identities.

“We all know how unscrupulous (Russian President Vladimir) Putin could be in his strategies,” Johnson stated. “It could not be proper to show this nation to pointless safety dangers and we is not going to do it.”

The Conservative prime minister added that he anticipated the variety of British visas supplied to refugees would rise very sharply “to within the area of the lots of of 1000's”.