Olena Said, who runs clinical trials at King’s College London, applied to move to the UK a few days before the Russian invasion, but her application has been blocked by the bureaucracy. He applied on 17 February under a priority system for the rapid monitoring of skilled workers under the post-Brexit immigration system based in the United Kingdom. However, he is still waiting for a decision. Said, 38, and her 74-year-old mother fled to neighboring Moldova six weeks ago, as the Odessa region was one of the first places to be bombed by the Russians. He said: “I’m deeply disappointed with the whole system. “It just feels like it is stuck somewhere in the void and there is no way we can find out what the truth is.” Said, who holds a PhD in clinical pharmacology, is conducting a clinical trial for the treatment of eating disorders at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, where she has been working since August 2021. Dr Hubertus Himmerich, a clinical senior lecturer working with Said at KCL, said his trial “could lead to a scientific and medical breakthrough” in the pharmacological treatment of anorexia nervosa. He added: “It is heartbreaking that a highly qualified medical researcher like Lena is not allowed to enter the UK and is being prevented from pursuing research that could save young lives. Said came to the United Kingdom in September 2020 on a student visa to complete his postgraduate studies at University College London. She had to return to Ukraine temporarily in January when her student visa expired. He then applied for a skilled worker visa, sponsored by King’s College, to move permanently to the United Kingdom. Now stuck in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, Said said she was “trying to survive every day.” She and her British partner, Richard Binham, tried to find out the status of her visa, but received conflicting responses from junior officials on UK visas and immigration. He said: “It is a great shame. I check my emails probably thousands of times a day in the hope that I can go back to where I have something that looks like a normal life and not get stuck in a country where there is nothing for me, no job, no family. This is incredibly isolated and destructive [there is a] lack of care from people who have the power to direct how someone’s life goes “. Official figures show that, since last Thursday, the United Kingdom has issued visas to 45% of the 65,000 Ukrainians who have applied under the Homes for Ukraine program or family system. However, only 4,700 visas have been issued out of the 32,200 applications under the Homes for Ukraine program, which the government launched with great admiration on March 18. Leading charities have called on the government to lift visa requirements for Ukrainian refugees as a short-term measure to align the UK with the EU. More than 4.2 million Ukrainians have fled to neighboring countries since the invasion, according to the UN refugee agency. About 6.5 million people are displaced inside Ukraine. Kate Larmer, who co-founded Farnham Homes for Ukraine to match those fleeing the war with their homes in Surrey, said the UK’s “hateful” visa requirements add to people’s emotional distress. Her team has submitted 136 visa applications on behalf of Ukrainians, including dozens of children, but only six have been issued, she said. Most of the 136 are waiting for more than two weeks and a “significant percentage” for more than three weeks. A government spokesman said he was “moving as fast as possible” to bring the Ukrainians to the UK. He added: “We have simplified the process so that holders of valid passports do not have to make personal appointments before arriving in the UK, we have simplified our forms and increased staff numbers, while ensuring that vital security checks are carried out. “We continue to accelerate visa processing in both systems, with almost 30,000 visas issued in the last three weeks alone and thousands more expected to go through these routes without restriction.”
