A local resident has signed a petition urging the UK government to provide a path to settlement for Ukrainian refugees currently living in the country.
The petition, which has gained significant support with 34,902 signatures, calls for the government to offer Ukrainian refugees a route to permanent settlement in the UK, following their arrival after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Graham Ellis, a Melksham Town Councillor, is one of the petition’s supporters and was also a host for a Ukrainian family who arrived in Melksham.
He said, “We have a quarter of a million guests from Ukraine in the UK at present and these individuals face significant uncertainty about their future. We think allowing them to settle would provide the stability needed to rebuild their lives and contribute to British society.”
The Home Office has stated that, to date, the UK has offered sanctuary to over 300,000 Ukrainians and their families under one of three Ukraine schemes: the Ukraine Family Scheme, the Homes for Ukraine Scheme, and the Ukraine Extension Scheme.
From last month, Ukrainian refugees have also been able to apply for Ukraine Permission Extension (UPE), which enables them to stay in the country for a further 18 months.
However, Graham said that if Ukrainian refugees wish to stay permanently then it would make sense to enable them to do so.
“Most of the guests who have been here for over two years now have become a useful part of our society and some to the extent that this is now home,” says Graham. “This was never their intention when they came here (many of them landed in random towns and villages) but they have friends and some lifelong partners and are filling employed roles which were otherwise difficult to fill.
“For the UK government, it means these useful, productive, enthusiastic members of society stay usefully here. For the Ukraine government, it means that the relatively small proportion who feel they would be going back against their will (and be an unhappy liability there) have an option to stay in the UK. And for the individuals, such an allowance would mean they could get on with their lives without being held in a cruel indefinite limbo.”
The Home Office said, “Our offer of sanctuary through the Ukraine schemes remains temporary in nature and does not lead to settlement in the UK. This recognises the Ukrainian government’s strong desire for the future return of its citizens to help rebuild Ukraine when it is safe to do so. It is important our approach respects these wishes.
“We will, of course, continue to keep the Ukraine schemes under consistent review in line with developments in the ongoing war.”
Graham added, “I am not suggesting an automatic right to remain for everyone who’s arrived from Ukraine. What I am suggesting is that now is the time to provide a route to permanence for those who came here in a short-term rush without even the intent of it being for more than a year or two before they returned, but have now established a life here and become a part of our society, should have a route through which they can stay.
“This petition calls for ‘a path,’ that is all – that perhaps ten of them might take up.”
Cover Photo: Graham Ellis.
Below: Some of Melksham’s Ukrainian guests celebrating Ukrainian Independence Day in 2022
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