Ukraine: Does the Home Office need to get a grip?

It has been over a week since Home Secretary Priti Patel first appeared in Parliament to outline the government’s response to the growing humanitarian crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Now the number of people fleeing the country has reached two million, according to the UN refugee agency, and yet the number of people granted entry into Britain still runs into the hundreds.

Ministers speak of moving “with speed” to ensure the UK pursues a “generous” policy towards those Ukrainians who want to come to Britain.

But there is growing frustration – even anger – among some MPs at what they see as an inadequate response so far.

Home Secretary Kevin Foster faced fierce criticism from all quarters on Tuesday when he was sent to the House of Commons to defend the government’s actions.

MPs cited stories of chaos and confusion told them by their constituents; Relatives turned away from visa centers in Poland, appointments won’t be available for weeks, centers in Brussels closed, personal data lost and applications delayed.

Tory backbench Alec Shelbrooke has urged the Home Office to “get a grip”.

So, what’s up?

The Home Office says it has made significant progress in providing routes for refugees in a short space of time – it says it is “ascending” staff to countries across Europe to support visa applications, train more case workers in the UK and set up helplines and pop-ups -centres.

Aware of the need for security checks to be carried out, the government said some people in Calais had already presented false documents claiming to be Ukrainians to enter the UK.

While some MPs want these requirements to be waived, others say the controls themselves are not the problem – it’s the pace at which things are moving.

Labor MPs say the system is being held up by Home Office bureaucracy, which has led to a slow, chaotic and chaotic response.

Some conservatives agree.

There is understanding that the department responsible for law and security usually takes a cautious approach, but there is frustration that ministers have failed to recognize that the current situation calls for something extraordinary.

Former Home Secretary Amber Rudd told the BBC that the Home Office needed a whole new approach rather than business as usual and said it was “amazing and disappointing” that so few visas had been issued to Ukrainian refugees.

Several Conservative MPs point out that it has been a week since the Department for Leveling, Housing and Communities was tasked with setting up a new humanitarian route for refugees, but so far there are few details on how it might work while the existing programs for family members of those in the UK seem to be moving slowly.

Former Immigration Secretary Mark Harper drew comparisons to the implementation of the furlough scheme at the start of the Covid pandemic.

“The Home Office must of course ensure that the appropriate security measures are in place, but it must proceed at a pace appropriate to the scale of the events,” he said.

“The government can do this if necessary, as we saw when the Treasury designed and rolled out the furlough scheme in four days at the start of the pandemic.

“That is the level of bold, imaginative policy and operational response that we need to see from the Home Office.”

For some, leadership matters.

Ms Patel’s claim that a visa application center had been set up in Calais when it had not was called “eye tears” by a backbencher.

A former cabinet minister said Home Office officials needed a direction and momentum that had previously been lacking, a combination of strong leadership and micromanagement, to get things off the ground.

Another Conservative backbencher suggested that a Home Secretary who wants to show a tough stance on immigration may have misjudged public and political sentiment – something strongly opposed by Ms Patel’s supporters, who point out it wasn’t planned cap on the number of Ukrainians who can come to the UK.

Some conservative backbenchers agree that the problem lay in practice — not getting the right people in the right place fast enough — not in political ideology.

Remarkably, two former ministers with knowledge of the Home Office both used the same phrase – it’s more a scam than a conspiracy.

The Government has now appointed Richard Harrington Minister for Refugees to work in the Home Office and the Department for Leveling Up, perhaps in recognition of the need for progress.

Ministers have promised they will be regularly briefed on efforts already underway to speed up the system, although MPs want to see results on the ground.

So far, the political spectrum has deliberately shown unity in the response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but pressures will remain when it comes to the government’s response to a growing refugee crisis.