Ukraine: Stafford woman's Poland dash amid family visa woe

Olena Florek pictured with mother Halyna and brother Volodymyr three years ago

Olena Florek Olena Florek with mother Halyna and brother Volodymyr — Olena Florek pictured with mother Halyna and brother Volodymyr three years ago

A woman is heading to Poland to try to expedite her family's exit from Ukraine amid, she says, a lack of official communication over her brother's visa application.

While the UK visas of Olena Florek's parents have been sorted, they remain in Ukraine with her disabled sibling.

The Stafford resident said the status of her brother's paperwork was unclear.

The government said it was "moving as quickly as possible" to ensure those fleeing Ukraine could come to the UK.

Mrs Florek, 36, said she hoped to "get answers" over her brother's application in Warsaw on Wednesday.

She told the BBC a government worker phoned a fortnight ago to explain her brother's documentation was going to be "printed somewhere" in the Polish capital.

But she added: "When I [asked] for this to be confirmed via email, I've never received anything to confirm that phone call."

She said since 23 March, she had no "confirmation or anything saying that my brother's application [has] been progressed".

"I don't understand why [it] takes... weeks for someone to actually... confirm back to me [what's] happening and why my parents [were] allowed to come and my brother's application [has] been delayed."

'Forgot to press send'

Mrs Florek said she believed "someone probably just forgot to press the send button" or her 45-year-old brother Volodymyr's "visas or paperwork" were "somewhere in the visa application office just lying down collecting the dust".

She said she was flying to Warsaw on Tuesday night and hoping to get answers from a visa application centre in the city.

If those efforts failed, she explained, she felt "I just have to go physically into Ukraine" to try to get family "to cross the border".

A spokesperson said the government was "moving as quickly as possible to ensure that those fleeing Ukraine can find safety in the UK through the Ukraine Family Scheme and Homes for Ukraine".

They added: "We have streamlined the process so valid passport holders do not have to attend in-person appointments before arriving in the UK, simplified our forms and boosted caseworker numbers, while ensuring vital security checks are carried out.

"We continue to speed up visa processing across both schemes, with almost 30,000 visas issued in the last three weeks alone and thousands more expected to come through these uncapped routes."