Misha Raminishvili was on the verge of despair and his daughter on the verge of tears when the news broke. His wife Maria had a blank look in her eyes that spoke of a nightmarish journey with no final destination.
“No visa for at least another week,” he said simply. “Nobody can help us in Calais.”
I met Misha with his Ukrainian wife Maria and two children at a hostel in the French port that houses 137 Ukrainian refugees.
Mischa has a house in Hornchurch, east London, but lives between there and Kyiv.
He and his son Misha Jr. have British passports. But his wife Maria and daughter Gabrielle don’t – and therefore need a visa, which requires biometric checks, to enter the UK.
Mischa has been stuck in Calais for five days, unable to get his family across the Channel in what was to be the final leg of a journey that began on February 24th.
At the beginning of this journey, Maria walked 45 miles to the Ukraine-Romania border before Misha reached her.
“I feel left out,” Mischa told me in Calais. “Who else will help me if not my own government?”
More than 500 Ukrainian refugees are currently in Calais hoping to make it to Britain.
Among them are families with young children and babies, but also older women who fled the war and crossed a continent.
Many say they have attempted to reach the UK only to have been turned away by Border Force officers for not having the correct paperwork.
Although Home Secretary Priti Patel said she had “augmented a Home Office team” to help local people in Calais – and denied anyone had been turned back at the border – there is frustration and despair among those trying to to navigate through the bureaucracy.
An Interior Ministry presence at a local administration building disappeared this morning, a sign at the hostel advising people to go to Brussels or Paris to apply for a visa.
Desperate refugees returned from the building saying they didn’t know what to do – or where to go.
Finally, Mischa spoke to a Border Force officer, who advised him to drive across town to the old port building.
He has a car and could drive there. But when he arrived, the Home Office representative consisted of three men at a table in a deserted departure lounge with bags of pre-salted chips and candy bars.
When Misha asked her how he could get home to England with his family, he was told he could have an appointment in Paris on March 15.
“Another week is stuck here,” complained Mischa. “I’ve never claimed a benefit in my life and when I first ask my government for their help, that’s how they treat me. I’m disappointed.”
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The Home Office had pledged support to refugees arriving in Calais to help them face the final leg of their long journey.
However, a Home Office statement today announced: “There is no visa application center in Calais and people should not travel there.
“Anyone wishing to apply under the Ukrainian Family Program should apply online and then travel to the nearest Visa Application Center.
“The only visa application center in France is in Paris.”
A Care4Calais charity worker has become the focal point for many of the refugees at the hostel, but she too is frustrated by the lack of information and support from the UK authorities.
The PM said the UK government will be “very, very generous” in helping Ukrainian refugees get to Britain, but in Calais, people fleeing the war and seeking refuge in Britain spoke of a different attitude than that in the edge.
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