It’s been two months since 16-year- sent by old Vlad Ksheminsky off forms that he hoped trigger in start of a new life in Britannia.
Vlad is one of hundreds of teenagers who applied to houses for The Ukraine scheme fled the war without him parents. While the Home Office is trying to decide how to deal with with cases like him, they were left in uncertainty for weeks – and even months – with No decision.
“It is very difficult to wait, knowing that my parents are one and half Thousand miles and our destiny is still unknown- said Vlad. “This is very hard”.
Sharp studentVlad cooked for school exams when the areas around it home town of Krasilov in Western Ukraine was heavily bombed. His mother, Marina, was frightened. for her life, but, unable to leave, called her best friend Olesya Reviuk to ask if she could help her son escape.
Reviuk, 43, recalls: “She told me that every day you hear sirens and three or four times the day they go down in a bomb shelter, which was very cold, with no water. It was impossible to sleep there at night. with sirens are coming off”.
Reviuk did not hesitate. “I promised that I would take good care of Vlad, she said. She arranged for him to join she and her two sons in Italy where she fled in February. Then, with his parents Bless her, she became his legal guardian.
children spoke English and didn’t speak Italian, so Reviuk applied to Homes for Scheme Ukraine at the earliest opportunity.
They were matched with Paul Hanlon, Lancaster General Practitioner, his wife Rebecca Shepard, an anatomy teacher, and two of them young children. British family fast made two large spare bedrooms and a separate living room are ready, assuming group would soon arrive.
Instead, two months passed while Revyuk and children wait in cramped rented room in Flat in Modena, Italy.
Reviuk said: “Live in one Bedroom with two teenagers and one small child who wakes up up at night and eat also sometimes it hurts a lot for us”.
Hanlon, 42, said: “It’s so frustrating to think they could enjoy space as well as support on offered here, but instead we all spend hundreds of hours struggle with bureaucracy that seems to have been set up to distract, not protect, those who are fleeing this violent conflict.”
Hanlon in touch with about 40 other sponsors in similar situations, everyone despairs in the same impasse. « government a broad answer to most questions on topic because of defense”, is cynical use of this is term to avoid to deal with with most vulnerable group suffered from this war.
Sign up on First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7:00 am Moscow time.
Given that Vlad travels with legal guardian, his case should to be one of rectilinear. But it seems made no difference.
“I do not understand, logic of protecting me because in there is a war going on in my country and the security situation is no worse for me than to stay there,” Vlad said. “It just it makes no sense to me what protection matters government could, when we have all the documents in place and Olesya is family friend who has legal guardianship?
A “letter before the claim” was sent to the Ministry of the Interior over case of families, threatening judicial review. Vlad’s lawyer Simon Robinson said: “The delay in even providing decision while maintaining family in darkness indicates that secretary of the state has failed make adequate policy to fulfill the promises she has made. she turns her back on a little of most vulnerable people escape from conflict children”.
For Vlad, waiting means uncertainty over his education. He’s only got a week left inform the Ukrainian authorities which country he will be in take exams remotely and don’t know what to put. He also wants to go to university.
Reviuk said: “Great Britain government accepts future away from Vlad. He is a very talented boy. He reads a lot and wants to study. And right now we just I do not see future”.
