Prime Minister Boris Johnson rejected calls on Monday for Britain to ease visa demands on Ukrainian refugees fleeing conflict, saying Britain was a generous country but it needed to maintain checks on who was arriving.
The United Nations estimates that more than 1.5 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia started bombarding its neighbour, with hundreds of thousands pouring into Poland, Romania, Slovakia and elsewhere.
Responding to criticism Britain was not doing enough and was far behind its European neighbours in helping address the continent’s biggest humanitarian crisis since World War Two, Johnson said:
“We are a very, very generous country. What we want though is control and we want to be able to check.” he told reporters. “I think it’s sensible given what’s going on in Ukraine to make sure that we have some basic ability to check who is coming in.”
The British government has been condemned by charities, opposition lawmakers and France after its insistence that refugees first acquire a visa meant some Ukrainians have been stuck in the French city of Calais, unable to enter Britain, and provoking a diplomatic row.
-Cyprus Mail
