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Ukrainian refugees will be able to apply for UK visas at another processing centre being set up in Lille, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said.
Ms Truss told the House of Commons on Tuesday about the “pop-up” site in the city in northern France after the government’s resettlement policy for fleeing war-torn Ukraine was branded “cruel and chaotic”.
“Will the Foreign Secretary speak to her colleague the Home Secretary about the cruel and chaotic way that desperate Ukrainian refugees are being treated by her department?" Labour MP Diane Abbott asked.
“It cannot be right that there is no visa application centre in Calais and Ukrainian refugees who travel thousands of miles to Calais are being redirected to either Paris or Brussels.
"Does the Foreign Secretary agree that this brings the UK into disrepute?”
Ms Truss replied: “The Home Office have placed staff in Poland and Hungary to help people, they have also … the Home Secretary has announced a new pop-up application site in Lille.
“I can tell her that the Home Office has set up a surgery for MPs in Portcullis House, which I am sure she will be very welcome to take any cases she has to.”
Home Secretary Priti Patel told MPs on Monday: “I can confirm that we have set up a bespoke VAC en route to Calais but away from the port because we have to prevent that surge taking place.”
But Ms Patel later told the Commons the government is still “setting up” the visa application centre.
She said there was a need to avoid creating “choke points” in Calais and instead “encourage a smooth flow of people”, as concerns were raised over Ukrainians being turned away from the French port city.
There are no plans to open a centre in Calais but this will be under regular review, Ms Patel said.
It is understood that officials want to avoid drawing vulnerable Ukrainians to the area, where organised crime gangs exploit migrants hoping to cross the Channel.
Ukrainians already in Calais will be able to use the Eurostar for free to get to centres in Paris, Brussels and Lille, and Home Office staff will assess what additional support vulnerable people may need.
The pop-up facility in Lille is not intended to become a large-scale visa application centre.
A Downing Street spokesman said the centre was “en route to Calais” and “the Home Office are working quickly to set it up and we expect it to be set up in the coming days”.
The spokesman said it was not being set up in Calais because "we obviously want to make sure that we can provide the appropriate level of support that those who are seeking to enter the UK require.
“Obviously the Home Office and Border Force are best placed to make a call on where that would be best based to help support those people who are making their way through France.”
Home Office minister Kevin Foster told MPs there were “issues with providing specific application points at the port, but we are looking at how we can do it and we expect that to be set up within the next 24 hours”.
“We are already seeing people presenting at Calais with false documents claiming to be Ukrainian” and the government “will not take chances with the security of this country and our people,” Mr Foster said.
Responding to an urgent question by Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown on how the Home Office can speed up refugee applications from those leaving Ukraine, Mr Foster said: “A crucial part of the application process is providing biometrics so we can be sure applications are who they say they are."
These checks are in place to prevent impostors, such as Russian agents, from misusing the visa and humanitarian offers in place.
Mr Foster told the Commons more than 500 visas had been issued under the Ukraine Family Scheme, which was launched on Friday, and more than 10,000 applications had been submitted.
There are hundreds of people thought to be working to get visas processed, with more staff put in place in every centre in Europe.
The Home Office has taken up Defence Secretary Ben Wallace’s offer of staffing support from his ministry.
The first visa applications were received on Friday and were approved on Friday afternoon and Saturday.
It is understood to be taking staff about 20 minutes to process a completed application where biometrics have been taken.
None have been rejected, although a small number have been deferred because officials needed more information.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended the need for border checks on refugees fleeing to Britain from Ukraine.
“I think it is important that when you do have people coming to your country, maybe coming from a war zone where their previous history is unclear, what they have been up to, it is important to have checks," Mr Johnson said.
“That is one thing we are able to do. I think having some sort of check, some sort of control is an important feature of the way we do things. I think it is valuable.
“It doesn’t mean we aren’t going to be massively, massively generous. But I think to have a system of simply uncontrolled immigration isn’t right.”
