London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Homes for Ukraine hosts protest over Home Office visa delays

Homes for Ukraine hosts protest over Home Office visa delays

MPs presented with dossier of 986 cases where visas have been applied for but not yet granted
Almost 1,000 Ukrainian families who applied for visas under the UK government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme are still waiting for the applications to be processed more than a month after submitting them.

One would-be host, Lauren Corbishley, who has founded a protest group about the delays, said the failure to issue visas to some of those who applied at the beginning of the scheme was “torture” for the families. She called on the government to launch a public inquiry into what has gone wrong.

A group of would-be hosts protested outside parliament on Monday and met MPs including Theresa May and Steve Baker. They presented the MPs with a dossier of 986 cases where visas have been applied for but not yet granted. Of these, 866 applied in the first two weeks of the scheme, which opened on 18 March.

The government did not respond to claims from UK hosts and Ukrainian families that visa applications submitted early on in the scheme had gone astray, pointing out instead that the Home Office was now processing thousands of cases a day.

Two of the protesters at parliament, Debbie and Trevor Farnfield, helped the family they hope to sponsor apply for visas on 24 March. The family fled from Ukraine to Poland and are sleeping on mattresses in a gym outside Warsaw. The parents and two children have been granted visas but a third sibling has not, which means the whole family have been unable to travel to the UK. The Farnfields held up photos of the family at the Westminster protest.

“We wanted to help Ukrainian refugees because we have a family-size home but no longer have all of our family living in it,” Debbie Farnfield said. “We could not live with our consciences if we didn’t help out.”

They and the family they want to support are frustrated by the delays. “The visa system has become a national embarrassment,” said Trevor Farnfield.

Jo Wright, a wheelchair user, is trying to host a Ukrainian Paralympic athlete, Svitlana Tryfonova, and her two children. Wright has an accessible home and wanted a Ukrainian with a disability to be able to benefit from it.

“The family have been living in a three-storey building with no lift, so Svitlana’s sons have been carrying her up and down the stairs,” Wright said. “We booked them on to a flight to the UK today but we’re still waiting for the visas so had to cancel the flight.”

Visas for Tryfonova and her elder son have been processed but the family are still waiting for a visa for the younger son.

A group called Vigil for Visas is calling on the government to simplify the visa process, allow applications to be tracked in real time and end the delays that they say could prove deadly for people trapped in a war zone.

Corbishley’s group, Protest Over Missing Visa Applications 18-25 March 2022, is another highlighting the problems many are having with getting UK visas.

A government spokesperson said: “Thanks to the generosity of the public who have offered their homes to Ukrainians fleeing the war and through the Ukraine family scheme, more than 71,800 visas have been granted with 21,600 Ukrainians arriving safely in the UK. The Home Office is now processing thousands of visas a day – this shows the changes made to streamline the service are working and we’ll continue to build on this success so we can speed up the process even further.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
×