Ukrainian Refugees ‘Unfairly’ Blocked From Route to Seeking Permanent Life in the UK

Thousands of Ukrainian refugees have had their hopes of remaining in the UK dashed after the Government ruled that, in contrast to those fleeing other parts of the world, they will not be able to count the years they’ve already spent forging new lives in Britain, towards their claims for permanent residency.

Refugees from other parts of the world can count all of their time spent living in the UK towards permanent settlement status, which is normally granted after 10 years.

But in a statement quietly slipped out in a written parliamentary statement by migration minister Seema Malhotra, that route has now been specifically closed off to Ukrainians.

The Home Office told Byline Times that Ukrainian refugees had been excluded due to the “express wishes of the Ukrainian Government” that their nationals should return to rebuild the country after the war.

However, Natalia Kogut, who dodged Russian bombs in Kyiv before escaping in 2022 told the Byline Podcast that the development, has left her “in stress, in anxiety, in depression”.

After moving to the UK, Natalia lived for months in a homeless shelter before getting a job as an academic researcher at the University of Birmingham.

That enabled her to secure a rented house in the city where she now lives with her two children and her mother. Her brother is also a refugee to the UK.

Natalia is estranged from her husband and her father has died, leaving her with few ties back home.

“Job, school, all my family …everything’s here”, she said.

“We have nothing left in Ukraine.”

More than 200,000 of her compatriots have legally arrived in the UK since Russia’s full scale invasion in 2022, under the ‘Homes For Ukraine’ initiative and similar schemes.

Most have found work and, like Natalia, are contributing to the UK economy.

The UK Government announced in November that these refugees will all be allowed to apply for an 18-month visa extension – but the immigration rules were changed to specifically exclude Ukrainians from the ‘Long Residence’ route to settled status.

Natalia said: “They say the Ukrainian Government would like people back, but we also should think that there are human rights.

“No country can claim citizens back, and it will have been four and a half years after the extension.”

She acknowledges many of her compatriots will wish to return home once the conflict is resolved, but one survey suggests that two thirds of Ukrainians living in the UK would now like to stay permanently.

Natalia is one of them, partly because she fears the psychological impact on her children, who are both students, of having to uproot and start again for a second time.

Then there’s the question of where, precisely, all these Ukrainians might return to.

“Part of Ukraine is occupied, so there is nowhere to go back to there,” she says referring to the large areas in the south and east of the country, now controlled by Russia.

“There are millions of displaced people internally and lots of destroyed buildings.

“I know plenty of people who don’t have their houses back in Ukraine and who don’t have jobs anymore.

“Enterprises have been ruined physically or economically.”

Natalia emphasises her immense gratitude to the UK for its assistance to date; but as for the prospect of being forced to return home?

“It’s just not fair”, she concludes.

Simone Shehtman, founder of Birmingham For Ukraine, which helps refugees settle in the city, also contends that the process for visa extensions is both bureaucratic and unnecessary.

The Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme – as it’s officially known – has a narrow 28 day application window linked to a refugee’s arrival date.

Applicants can be rejected for submitting their forms a day early or a day late, meaning they would no longer be eligible to remain in the UK.

Shehtman said: “The concept that you might be sent back into Russian controlled territory is quite an unimaginable position for the British Government to have put Ukrainian guests in this country into.”

She also believes that Ukrainian refugees could be forced into homelessness and lose their jobs because of the uncertainty generated by the eight-week visa processing period.

She contrasts the Government’s position to that of other European countries who have granted automatic visa extensions for those forced to flee Putin’s aggression – and is petitioning for something similar in the UK.

There is also a need to prepare for longer term acceptance of these refugees, she says, not least because of the passage of time.

“Many young children know will now know English better than Ukrainian.

“Many people have got their job, careers, housing and entire families here in the UK.

“At the end of visa extension period, they will have been here four and a half years.

“We need to think now about a permanent pathway to residence given the attritional nature of Russia’s provocation and invasion of Ukraine.”

A Home Office spokesperson told Byline Times: “Since Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, we have offered or extended sanctuary to over 300,000 Ukrainians and our support will continue to reach Ukrainians who need it most.

“The Ukraine Permission Extension scheme will provide the same rights and entitlements as the existing Ukraine Schemes, to access work, benefits, healthcare and education.”

When quizzed on why Ukrainians won’t be allowed to count their time in the UK towards the ‘long residence’ route to settled status they pointed us to quotes by migration minister Seema Malhotra.

She said: “We have always been clear that the Ukraine schemes provide temporary sanctuary in the UK only while the war in Ukraine remains ongoing, and that they are not a route to settlement in the UK.

“This is in line with the express wishes of the Ukrainian government, who will need their nationals to return to help rebuild the country when it is safe to do so.” 

Listen to the full episode of the Byline Podcast hosted by Adrian Goldberg.