UK minister to open home to Ukrainian family and their dog in ‘next couple of weeks’

Watch: Transport Secretary Grant Shapps to take in refugee family - including their dog

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has confirmed he will be hosting a family under the Homes for Ukraine scheme “in the next couple of weeks”.

The Tory minister revealed on Friday he was opening his Hertfordshire home to a six-year-old boy, his mother and grandmother.

Shapps has now said he expects them to arrive in the coming weeks.

He said: “We’re waiting for that family to arrive, we hope, in the near future.

“We have got a three-generation Ukrainian family, a mum, her six-and-a-half-year-old boy, and a 75-year-old mother or grandmother I suppose, and their dog who is called Max.

“We are all looking forward to them arriving in the next couple of weeks.”

Read more: UK visa rule leaving refugees stranded in war-torn Ukraine, say charities

It comes a day after four major charities criticised the government over its visa system for Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, saying it was “causing great distress to already traumatised” refugees.

The heads of the Refugee Council, British Red Cross, Save the Children and Oxfam wrote in the Times on Monday: “Those who want to come to the UK are having to navigate a complex web of bureaucratic paperwork to get visas, leaving them facing protracted delays without any information about the status of their application.

“The government must urgently review the use of visas and waive them as an immediate short-term measure, as has been done by the EU, and look to introduce a simplified emergency humanitarian visa process.”

The government has said it is “moving as quickly as possible” to welcome refugees through the Ukraine Family Scheme and Homes for Ukraine and has so far issued more than 22,000 visas across both programmes.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHNCR) estimates there are around 3.9 million refugees following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Shapps said on Friday he had arranged to take in a family of Ukrainian refugees who contacted him on Facebook.

He is one of more than 100,000 Britons who have signed up for a government scheme to match those fleeing war in Ukraine with families who can offer them a minimum of six months shelter.

Read more: How to apply for the Homes for Ukraine scheme in the UK

The scheme was announced earlier this month after heavy criticism from campaigners and opposition MPs of the government's approach to allowing refugees into Britain.

Britain has insisted on security checks and pre-entry visas for those seeking to come from Ukraine, while the European Union, which has land borders with Ukraine, has taken a less restrictive approach.

Shapps said some outstanding visa issues were to be resolved with the family who contacted him, but he looked forward to welcoming them.

"We had the conversation as a family about this, and of course it means the house is more crowded and there's less room for a desk to study at," Shapps told ITV's Good Morning Britain.

"But every time we came to the end of the conversation, we thought 'But look at what's happening to these people, look at what's happening to their home'."

A government spokesperson said: “We are moving as quickly as possible to ensure that those fleeing Ukraine can find safety in the UK through the Ukraine Family Scheme and Homes for Ukraine.

“We have streamlined the process so valid passport-holders do not have to attend in-person appointments before arriving in the UK, simplified our forms and boosted caseworker numbers, while ensuring vital security checks are carried out.

“We continue to speed up visa processing across both schemes, with more than 22,000 issued under the Ukraine Family Scheme.”