The British Children’s Visa Row as a three -month wait for Ukraine Violin players continues

A 17-year-old violinist who lives in the front lines in Southeast Ukraine has been abandoned waiting for three months for the British visa, expressing serious weaknesses in the government’s promise to help children who are not accompanied.

Anastasiia, who lives in the Zaporizhhia region occupied by Russia, where the battle has been intense, has faced the shooting constantly while waiting to join the family at Hertfordshire.

There are so many bombs and rockets and buildings that are burning now,” he said. “They fight every day. I can get out but also very dangerous. “The Guardian did not publish his family name because he had to cross the examination post to escape.

Anastasiia is one of about 1,000 children who are not accompanied by applying to England under the Ukraine scheme and are abandoned in limbo after the government changes its policies and says children must travel with parents or guardians.

This problem should have been resolved last month after the government announced that it would allow a safe path to Britain for those who had applied.

But a small printing in the policy revealed that most of them would not meet the requirements as said by children alone should have known their host before the war broke out, except in a “extraordinary” state.

A letter sent at the end of June told Anastasiia that in “early July” he would be contacted about a new scheme but that his host usually only qualified if they knew him before the war of war. He hasn’t heard anything since then.

Anastasiia is one of several young musicians who helped join the British musical family after the encouragement of the Music Trade Agency, BPI. While those over 18 years old can come to England, Anastasiia is left waiting.

He said he “dreamed of being in a large orchestra” since he was young and that “a large -scale destruction” from his hometown means his dream will be difficult to realize unless he leaves.

Sally Belsham, 57, from Bishop Stortford in Hertfordshire, has her own musical teenager, and has been ready to welcome anastasiia since their application on April 11.

Just leaving him in this situation is terrible,” he said. “This is really inhumane. I understand the need for protection but you cannot have a system that makes people in Limbo like this. “

Both Belsham and her husband, Giampaolo Martinelli, 54, have a broad background examination when he works with refugees and Martinelli is a heart anesthetic expert. They have 17 -year -old twins and a 19 -year -old son at the university.

Belsham added: “There is still no certainty that he will even be approved in this scheme, because we did not know him before the war.

This is nonsense, really. Obviously, the reason we are in this situation is because of our war and desire to help and the need to go out. “

Anastasiia’s parents, who guarded four children who were adopted with health needs and could not leave, did not want him to leave without a visa. Without the certainty of the adoptive family, they were worried that he was traveling to other places in Europe.

Before the war, Anastasiia attended school school and practiced for five or six hours a day. Now he says he struggles, because he often takes refuge in their basement and helps care for his siblings.

I think it would be very good to practice in the basement but children have a lot of energy and I always need to help my parents,” he said.

Peer Peer Alf Dubs says “really shocking” that teenagers are left on the front lines for months. “When young people live in the war zone, more time is more dangerous,” he said.