Donald Tusk has criticised Britain’s response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis, as the Home Office continues to turn back people without visas.
Most of Europe has operated an open door policy for Ukrainians freeing the Russian invasion, with the UK standing out as an exception.
The approach has sparked anger in other countries, with France’s interior minister accusing the British government of a “lack of humanity”.
Now Donald Tusk, the former president of the European Council who oversaw Brexit talks, has taken aim at Boris Johnson himself.
“Solidarity in action. The UK has granted 50 visas to the Ukrainian refugees while the Poles have welcomed 1.2 million Ukrainians in two weeks,” Mr Tusk said in a post on social media.
Mr Tusk, a longstanding critic of UK government policy, juxtaposed the statistics with a quote from the UK’s prime minister.
“‘We are generous as we possibly can be, we are very, very generous’, says Boris Johnson.”
Mr Tusk ended his message with a “facepalm” emoji – used to expressed frustration.
The former Council chief, a Polish politician who is now president of the ruling centre-right European People’s Party group, also took aim at eurosceptics and nationalists.
“If you undermine the European unity and promote nationalism, you are Putin’s ally,” he said.
“If you attack the rule of law, media freedom and human rights in your country, you are Putin.”
Unlike most European countries the UK government has said it will only take Ukrainian refugees with family connections or sponsorship by a third party. Immigration ministers have suggested people could be pretending to be Ukrainian and that they might consider coming to Britain on work visas to pick fruit.
By contrast the European Union has activated a special law which will allow all people fleeing the conflict access to housing and other public services for an initial period of three years. They will not be asked to apply for asylum or visas.
The figure of around 50 refugees used by Mr Tusk dates from over the weekend, with the latest official stats suggested 300 Ukrainians have been granted visas to come to Britain – still dwarfed by the two million who have actually fled the country.
Ireland has already taken over 2,000 people and its government has said it expects to take between 80,000 to 100,000 in total.
The Home Office says a total of 17,700 Ukraine national visa applications have been started and that 9,000 of those are require to provide more information.
The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.
