British man stuck in Holland with Ukrainian boy 'frustrated' over visa delays

A man who is trying to sponsor a 17-year-old Ukrainian refugee says they are frustrated visa delays have left them stuck in Holland for seven weeks.

Joseph Kleijnen, who lives in East Yorkshire, flew to Amsterdam on 22 March to collect Andrii, whose parents are both military doctors in Ukraine.

He said they had no response from the Home Office since submitting a visa application in Holland on 24 March.

The Home Office said it was "processing visas as quickly as they come in".

Andrii fled the country alone hours after bombs landed near his hometown of Volodymyr-Volynskyi, in the north-west of Ukraine, the same day Mr Kleijnen, 59, and his wife Jeanette, 56, applied to sponsor him under the Homes4Ukraine scheme.

Andrii said: "It's scary, because when missiles hit 2km away from my home and the house was shaking, I just packed my things and departed at 2am, the same day the scheme started.

"I never imagined that my first trip abroad would be like this.

"You don't know what will happen in five minutes, or in an hour or in a day, and especially now, I have no clue what will happen to [me], my parents and my eight-year-old sister who are left there.

"We cannot predict what will happen but it's not a situation you want to be in."

Mr and Mrs Kleijnen, who live in Sunk Island and were appointed as Andrii's guardians, said they thought the visa application would be processed quicker in the Netherlands than in Ukraine's neighbouring country, Poland.

"When we first contacted Andrii, he was staying in the cellar of his house because the raid alarms were going off. He couldn't sleep and was in a poor mental state," said Mr Kleijnen, a semi-retired physician and professor who has dual British and Dutch nationality.

"At the moment we are just moving from accommodation to accommodation and we don't know what's happening because the Home Office hasn't said a word. They do not communicate with us.

"We have no idea why and that's very frustrating on top of the stress that is already there."

Mrs Kleijnen, originally from Blackburn, Lancashire, said: "I just feel completely helpless. I can see Andrii needs support, he needs to be somewhere stable.

"There's a lot of uncertainty in his life and the little bit we can do to help is to give him some stability; to make sure he can carry on doing his studies, he can feel settled.

"But we can't do that at the moment and for someone fleeing a warzone, this is really the last thing they need."

The Kleijnens said they had contacted their local MP Graham Stuart, who also contacted the Home Office on their behalf, but has had no explanation for the delay.

Hull-based Immigration lawyer, Jayne Mercer, from the charity Community Integration Advocacy Centre, is helping them.

She said the case highlighted the problem currently being faced by more than 42,000 people from Ukraine.

"We are all frustrated by the lack of communications from the Home Office. This is just one case, but highlights the problem many people are facing," said Ms Mercer.

Mrs Kleijnen said they were running out of options, but they were considering taking legal action against the Home Office.

The Home Office said: "The changes the Home Office has made to streamline the visa system, including simplifying the forms and boosting staff numbers, are working and we are now processing visas as quickly as they come in - enabling thousands more Ukrainians to come through our uncapped routes."

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