Yahoo News Couple who rescued fleeing Ukrainians stuck in French hotel paying €200 a night
A couple who rescued family members fleeing the Ukraine crisis are spending €200 per day while stuck in a French hotel after being turned away while trying to board a ferry from Calais.
Steve Billington and his Ukrainian wife Iryna Shyhera drove to Opole in Poland to rescue his brother-in-law’s wife and their two young children who managed to escape the conflict.
Bohdana Shyhera and her children, Solomiia, aged three, and Pavlo, 13, left their home in a village outside Lviv in Western Ukraine after Russia invaded. Their father has stayed in the country to fight.
Billington and his wife drove to the French port of Calais after collecting the escaped family, in the hope of boarding a ferry to the UK, but were refused because they did not have a visa.
They are now in the Hostellerie Saint Vincent in the town of Beauvais, around 55 miles outside Paris, while waiting for their travel documents, at the cost of around €200 per day.
The UK has come under pressure to relax restrictions and be take in more refugees since the scale of the humanitarian crisis - which has now seen more than 2.8 million people forced to flee their homes - became apparent.
On Monday, the Government launched a new sponsorship scheme – Homes for Ukraine – that will allow people and organisations give those fleeing the war a place to stay on.
But Billington, from Abbotts Langley, Hertfordshire, says it is not that simple.
He said: "I'm not going to put them through that again after what happened last week. I thought you were just going to be able to turn up at the border on Tuesday - I even booked a Euro Tunnel crossing.
"But they are saying you need some form of approval from the home office."
Billington, 58, was initially told to drive to Brussels where the family would "get their visas in under 24 hours."
He pleaded with border control officers to let them through, but they threatened to have them forcefully removed by French police and said they would not be able to enter in the future.
Watch: Ukrainians sat on UK border as Patel promises easier access
He said: "It seems like Priti Patel made this announcement without checking with people on the ground who are saying no you can't do that.
"So we still need to go to the visa centre in Paris to hand over their passports and have their finger prints taken.
"We're probably going to be here for another week."
A Government spokesperson said: “Last week we announced a new sponsorship route which will allow Ukrainians with no family ties to the UK to be sponsored to come to the UK.
“This is alongside our Ukraine Family Scheme, which has already seen thousands of people apply, as well as changes to visas so that people can stay in the UK safely.
“The routes we have put in place follow extensive engagement with Ukrainian partners. This is a rapidly moving and complex picture and as the situation develops, we will continue to keep our support under constant review.”
As of Sunday, the Home Office has issued 4,000 visas under the Ukraine Family Scheme, with 17,100 applications submitted and 10,600 appointments made at visa processing centres.
