Cooper had posed an urgent question about the government’s two visa programs, with lawmakers from both sides of the House rounding out the government. The shadow interior minister cited cases, including those of a woman who traveled “a lot” to meet demands, including Warsaw to provide biometric data. and a mother and son who had been issued visas but were later revoked. “This is Kafkaesque: what the hell is going on? “Why is the interior minister so completely incapable of understanding this?” Cooper asked. “Why does he get so much for good? Why do they still require bureaucratic bundles, bundles of information? Tens of thousands of people are still stuck in the system. Families are desperate. “People all over the country have said they want to help, and yet the Home Office is disappointing.” Home Secretary Kevin Foster, in response to questions from lawmakers, said “the trajectory of visas issued every day is increasing.” He said 23,500 visas had been issued to Ukrainians with family ties to the UK. and 3,705 under the Homes for Ukraine program – but said it was “too early to say” how many of them had actually arrived in the UK. Answering questions from MPs, Foster acknowledged that the application forms were not available in Ukrainian. He said their translation would require “a fairly significant amount of technical work” and suggested that it would then be difficult to find enough Ukrainian speakers to edit them. A number of Conservative MPs, including former ministers Stephen Hammond and Robert Jenrick, have expressed concern about the slow pace of visa processing for the Homes for Ukraine program. Genrik, the former housing secretary, said: “The vast majority of donors tomorrow will have waited two weeks and heard absolutely nothing. “We are testing the patience of the people in this country who have presented themselves as sponsors and, more importantly, we are disappointing these vulnerable individuals and families in Ukraine.” The deputies raised the cases of families who waited many days to see the processing of their applications. and parents who could not travel because they did not have birth certificates or biometrics for infants and young children. Scottish National Member of Parliament Stuart C. MacDonald described the bureaucratic hurdles faced by applicants in Ukraine as “clumsy, bureaucratic and frankly traumatic”.
