Family of Ukrainian Woolton Hill resident stuck in Budapest amid visa application delays

The family of a Ukrainian Woolton Hill resident fleeing the war have been left stranded in Budapest as they wait for a visa to come to the UK.

Tanya Tame’s parents, Alexander and Kateryna, her sister, brother-in-law, and their young son are currently holed up in an apartment in the Hungarian capital waiting for news of whether their visa applications under the Ukraine Family scheme have been successful.

Alex Tame, husband of Tanya, said it had been a “fiasco” since the family completed the forms on Saturday when they were first released and submitted their biometrics at the UK visa centre in Budapest.

Mr Tame said the Home Office systems were “broken”, with the Tames asked to post supporting documents to London – while Mr Tame’s in-laws have tried to attach the same documents to their application in the visa centre.

“We don’t know whether everything has been matched together and we’re now in a queue for somebody to assess, or whether everything has fallen into a black hole,” Mr Tame said.

“If it’s the latter, how do we know? We’re stuck.”

Alexander and Kateryna, as well as Mr Tame’s brother and sister-in-law and their son – who didn’t wish to be named – fled from Cherkasy in central Ukraine last week, after spending four nights in a cellar in their garden, before travelling through Moldova and Romania to reach Hungary.

Mr Tame said there was now a mixture of feelings as they wait in an apartment, loaned to them by an American family.

He continued: “As the days go on and they’re sat waiting, they have a sense of ‘should we have stayed?’

“Because they’re now stuck there rather than stuck at home.

“When you’re faced with change, you get that adrenaline. When it wears off, you get the shock, worry, anger and regret.”

Since the family migration scheme opened, only 760 visas have been granted to fleeing Ukrainians as of noon on Wednesday, despite thousands of applications being submitted, with the Government under pressure to relax the bureaucracy that has dogged applications so far.

The visa centres are run by the Home Office’s commercial partner TLScontact, and Mr Tame said it had been a “massive headache” trying to deal with both the Home Office and its contractor.

He said: “It looks like TLScontact is trying to fudge an existing process to fit this Ukraine family bit and it doesn’t work.

“It’s just creating a massive headache.

“What’s really needed is to pick up the phone and call people.

“I can happily pick up the phone and speak to somebody and email them documents if they need them.”

Mr Tame said he didn’t believe the Government were deliberately making it difficult for Ukrainian refugees to come to the UK, and understood the need for checks, but said it needed to be done “in the right way".

He added: “At the end of the day, you have people who’ve fled a country who are now without accommodation.

“They’re having to wait for days, sleeping in cars, and getting nowhere because they don’t know what the process is.

“Everyone feels a bit helpless.”

Despite the family’s struggles, Mr Tame said they had been overwhelmed with kindness as offers of support pour in from friends, family and local residents.

He said their Ukrainian side of the family had been offered a place to stay in Great Shefford, as Mr Tame’s own house in Woolton Hill undergoes long-term renovation, while many others had offered clothes and asked what they needed.

He added: “There’s a lot of kindness around at the moment, which is really nice.”