Ukrainian mother pleads for children to join her in UK after Home Office refusal

A Ukrainian refugee says she is living in a "surreal nightmare" after she was refused permission to bring her two children to the UK.

- ANDY GREGORY

Pressure is mounting on ministers to open a family reunion pathway for Ukrainians with temporary immigration status, after the rules were changed without warning in February. Charities say that the Home Office’s “restrictive rules and poor decision-making” are “tearing families apart”.

Maria Kondratska, who arrived in Britain just months before Russia’s full-scale invasion, is now appealing on human rights grounds after the Home Office refused her application for her son and daughter, aged 11 and 15, to be given refuge with her in Britain.

Having arrived on a seasonal worker’s visa, Ms Kondratska had applied under the now-defunct Ukraine Family Scheme for her children to join her. They are living with their grandparents close to the border with Belarus. Her efforts have been hampered by her staying in shared accommodation which bars her from sponsoring her children.

But the 35-year-old described going “crazy with hopelessness” while waiting for a tribunal judge to decide whether she can appeal the Home Office’s refusal in August 2023 – as she lives in continual fear for her children’s safety.

While the Home Office insists she has no right of appeal, the charity Safe Passage has helped Ms Kondratska to challenge this in the tribunal courts on human rights grounds. Her latest request to appeal – lodged in April – was finally granted last week.