Dalgety Bay: Ukrainian refugees welcomed

Oksana Slokvenko and her daughter, Sofiia, spent 12 hours on foot, and almost 10 days in Poland, before being reunited with grandparents Larysa and Oleksiy Mishchenko.

The couple have lived in the town for more than 20 years and have been desperate to bring their daughter and grand-daughter over from Ukraine since war broke out.

Larysa said: “It was not an easy decision, it was really awful at the very beginning.

“It was predictable that people would flee Ukraine and when the British Government started to ask British citizens to leave Ukraine we knew something was going to happen and started to look for the opportunity to get our daughter and grand-daughter as they are our closest family in Ukraine.

“It is a relief for now because they are here in a safe place.”

The pair left their home in Cherkasy on March 4 but did not reach Scotland until late last week.

Oksana explained: “It is hard to understand and believe that your whole life stayed behind and you would need to pick up the most important stuff and just go.

“It was a very long and hard journey. We crossed the border from Ukraine to Poland after nearly 12 hours on foot with other people from Ukraine, mostly women and young children.

“Then we spent nearly 10 days in Poland applying and trying to get an answer from the visa application centre. The process is complicated and it was difficult to make an appointment and at the end we didn’t get the letter to notify us of the decision.”

After waiting almost a week for a decision, Oksana retuned to the application centre, who told her that they had been accepted just two days after their visa application was made, without notifying the family.

“The system doesn’t work properly and it is hard for our people because they need to come from different places, Krakow or other places near Warsaw to get the decision as they also didn’t get the answer via email.”

Even now, the pair are still required to upload further documents, though she says some refugees are travelling with nothing but their passports or birth certificates.

“I have my parents and I can speak English and that is why it is easier for me,” Oksana said, “but for other people who wanted to come here, many of them cannot speak English properly and many are afraid to leave their country, even if it is war.

“They know nothing about this country, they don’t know what it will be like when they come here.

“It is a complicated process, it is difficult for people who have been travelling for more than three days to apply and complete the documents.

“It must be easier if the Government want our people to be able to come, the process must be easier and more friendly for our people.”

For 10-year-old Sofiia, the language barrier is making things even more difficult as she struggles to adjust to the change.

“It was very hard for her,” Oksana explained.

“It is still hard because her language level is not as good.

“She started English only a few years ago at school and the knowledge the schools give children is not enough to speak properly and to understand people who are speaking English. She is nearly crying because she doesn’t understand what is being said around her, what is around her. She is so nervous.

“We are doing our best, we are trying to translate everything to make her more comfortable.

“I don’t know how other people with children will settle.”

Larysa, Oleksiy, and their youngest daughter, Alice, have always wanted Oksana to be able to visit and say it is “heartbreaking” that the war is the reason she has now been able to make the journey.

In 2001, Oleksiy was headhunted by an IT company and moved to Scotland, but Oksana was already 18 at the time and could not move with the rest of the family.

“We never, ever wanted them to come here for a reason like the war, we always wanted to see them in peaceful time,” Larysa said.

“Now, they are homesick and it is really heartbreaking.

“Yes, I am happy they are here, but why for such a reason?

“The British system was so unkind, so inhuman to leave it such a long time to make a decision, and it is still complicated, it is still not visa-free.

“The application form is the same as it was in the peaceful time and requires the same amount of documents which are supposed to be verified by lawyers in Ukraine, how is that possible?

“People are grabbing the most important things, their children and some documents, and driving away from the war.

“For us, we are happy to have them here, but still have a lot of worry about family, friends, relatives, and everything else.

“I am not sure we will ever have a rest from all this terror.

“It is hard to sleep, it is hard to do anything because your brain is always working on what is happening there.”

Larysa, who works in Tesco in Dunfermline, noted further how “grateful” her family were for the support given to them.

“Tesco have been really, really supportive from the first day and have offered me whatever I want, it is the same with my husband’s employers. People in Dalgety Bay are amazing, people in Scotland are amazing.”