The UK Needs to Move Quickly on Allowing People Fleeing War in Ukraine to Claim Asylum. By Adam Colclough
Green activists in North Staffordshire have joined the party’s national leadership in calling on the government to act quickly to allow people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine to claim asylum in the UK.
A spokesperson said: “the ongoing crisis in Ukraine has the potential to displace millions of people in a way not seen since the Second World War and the government need to act quickly and with compassion.”
Despite claims by prime minister Boris Johnson that the UK would ‘not turn its back’ on Ukraine in its ‘hour of need’ the government has faced criticism for its slow and limited response.
Immigration Minister Kevin Foster came in for criticism for writing on Twitter that there were ‘a number of routes, not least our seasonal worker scheme,’ the tweet was later removed.
Ukrainians with relatives who are British nationals can enter the UK on a family migration visa, concerns have been expressed that the criteria published late on Sunday evening by the Home Office are too narrow and thousands of people will be denied asylum as a result.
Writing on Twitter, Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion Caroline Lucas said: Only allowing “Immediate family” as defined by narrow Home Office Immigration Rules is grudging & cruel - it will exclude many Ukrainians fleeing horror of Putin.
The UN refugee agency estimates that at least 368,000 have already fled their homes as Russian troops advance and that up to 4.5 million people might eventually be displaced.
Many refugees are in temporary accommodation in neighboring countries including Poland and Romania, often in conditions that are unsuitable to the harsh winter weather.
Other European countries with large Ukrainian ex-pat populations are expecting an influx of refugees seeking asylum.
Responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine last week Green Party co-leader Carla Denya said: “The response from the UK has so far been wholly inadequate. We urge the government to immediately impose the strongest of sanctions on Russian economic interests, end once and for all the influence of Russian money in our democracy and launch an investigation into Russian interference in our elections.”
The Greens are calling for the government to implement further sanctions against the Putin government including requiring all banks based in the UK to use existing money laundering laws to track accounts linked to Putin supporters with a view to freezing them.
The Greens are also calling for the government to act on Russian interference in the UK political system, a problem it has previously ignored despite the warnings given in the Russia Report.
North Staffs Green Party endorse the position taken by the national leadership that ‘the abhorrent actions taken in Ukraine have been taken by the Putin regime alone, and the Russian people should not be held responsible in any way for what their oppressive and dangerous government have done’.
A spokesperson said: ‘we must take the terrible events happening in Ukraine as a call to work together to create a global movement for peace that will see an end to this war and all wars’.