Watch live: Boris Johnson takes PMQs as Govt comes under fire for Ukraine visas
9 March 2022, 11:44 | Updated: 10 March 2022, 07:23
Boris Johnson faces MPs at Prime Minister's Questions amid war in Ukraine | Watch Live
Boris Johnson will take PMQs as his Government comes under fire over Ukrainian refugees.
Just 760 visas have been granted as the Home Office tries to process 22,000 applications, it was confirmed on Wednesday morning.
Steps are being taken to try and improve the slow progress – which has been compared unfavourably to the ease refugees have found in European countries.
Read more: End visa requirements for Ukrainians fleeing war, ambassador urges
Some 2 million Ukrainians are thought to have fled the Russian invasion. Hundreds have crossed over to Calais to try and arrive in the UK.
A pop-up visa site has been set up in Lille, some 60 miles from Calais, while another has opened in Paris.
Read more: UK soldiers go AWOL to fight Putin's forces in Ukraine
Read more: Pictured: Fleeing family killed by Russians after image that sickened the world
There was criticism when a site in Rzeszów, Poland, near the Ukrainian border, shut its doors and failed to let a crowd of people in during sub-zero temperatures.
Many of them waved British passports as they tried to secure visas for loved ones. The door closure was laid at the feet of the property's owner.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK said at least 100,000 people could try join relatives in Britain under the Ukraine Family Scheme but he criticised the process for visas.
Vadym Prystaiko told the Commons Home Affairs Committee: "To process visas, there were always bureaucratic hassles.
"I have to tell you that even when I was coming here as ambassador I got my visa on time, [but] although I was already approved by your Government, my wife didn't have it.
"So even simple things like that - the bureaucracy is so tough."
