Labour peer and former child refugee Lord Dubs says it’s a disgrace the government was not prepared for an influx of refugees when we have known for some time that Russia was planning to invade Ukraine
Lord Dubs, who fled the Nazis as a child, has been appalled by the lack of action to help Ukrainian refugees (
Image: Getty)
Britain’s response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis has been a national humiliation so far.
It would be quite wrong for us to intervene militarily, but we must welcome those fleeing with open arms.
The country is in the throes of the worst conflict Europe has seen since the Second World War. I have watched with horror as the disaster has unfolded.
But we have known a long time that war and the flight of refugees here was a possibility – that’s why it’s so disgraceful we were not prepared.
Thanks to overwhelming public pressure, the Government has relaxed its rules slightly, but chaos still awaits many trying to seek sanctuary here.
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Image:
Europa Press via Getty Images)
Many nations have allowed refugees in without visas but the UK has turned people away in Calais and sent them to Paris or Brussels.
This is a disgraceful way to treat people fleeing war, no doubt feeling broken by the brutal journey they have made across Europe.
This week, the Government said it would allow those with passports to apply for visas online but this is too little, too late. It also doesn’t accommodate those without passports – some refugees have never left Ukraine before.
Ukrainian service members walk near a school building destroyed by shelling
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REUTERS)
Surely we don’t need to insist on visas, but in any case we need to have well-staffed stations at the borders to serve those who can’t apply online.
We also must scrap the rule that means you can only come to the UK if you have family ties. It shames us we have taken far fewer refugees than Ireland when it is a fraction of the size of Britain and further away from Ukraine.
We need to show the rest of Europe we are willing to take our fair share. And when they do arrive here, we must do our utmost to make them feel welcome.
I understand more than most what lies ahead of them – British hospitality saved my life. In 1939, when I was six, I left Prague on the Kindertransport. I said goodbye to my mother, not knowing if I’d see her again. Thankfully, she fled at the last moment and we were reunited.
But had this country not taken me in, I would have probably died in the Holocaust as my dad was Jewish.
There is a long and difficult road ahead of refugees from Ukraine.
They will have to integrate into a new society and some will have to learn English. They will be desperately worried for those they have left behind.
Our responsibility to them should continue after arrival. We must help them find accommodation, overcome language barriers, keep in touch with loved ones they have been separated from. And help them to play a full part, if they wish, in our local communities.
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