Ukrainian children stranded after passport theft

A Ukrainian family living in the UK says they cannot return home after the theft of their passports on holiday.

The Buchko family, who have lived in Britain for two years, were in the Canary Islands last month but now do not have visas to get back to the UK.

Bohdan, who is about to sit his GCSEs, and siblings Daryna and Orest have been in Ukraine waiting for documents to gain entry and return via Poland.

The Home Office said it did not routinely comment on individual cases.

Without travel documents, Bohdan, 16, Daryna, 15, and Orest, nine were forced to return to Ukraine on emergency Ukrainian passports. Mum Mariana Buchko did not lose her passport and so was able to return to the UK.

They have since been issued new Ukrainian passports but Mariana says the Home Office has told her that issuing them with new visas to return to the UK could take up to eight weeks.

She is asking the UK government to speed up the process so that Bohdan can sit his GCSE exams, which begin this Friday.

The children need to get a new BRP visa, which lets you re-enter the UK once only, from Warsaw - a process handled by the Home Office - and then apply for the replacement visas once they are back in the UK.

The children's father, Vasyl Buchko, lives in Ukraine while his wife and children moved to Hertfordshire in April 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Vasyl has fought in the war. After sustaining an injury, he was given leave from the army and decided to surprise his children by taking them on holiday to Tenerife - their first in years.

But the holiday turned into a nightmare following the theft on 11 April.

"My children's passports and residency permits were stolen," Mariana Buchko told the BBC.

"This has caused havoc [for] our family as there is no procedure for quickly reissuing children's visas."

She said the nearest Ukrainian consulate was in Malaga - on the Spanish mainland - which they managed to get to after several days.

The consul could only issue them with emergency white passports for return to Ukraine. This meant her husband and children flying to Poland and catching three trains to Ukraine on 19 April. Vasyl has remained in Ukraine to fight.

She says she has been trying for weeks to get her children back to the UK. After being issued with new Ukrainian passports, they are now waiting to be issued new UK visas. But Mariana says she has been told the process could take weeks, meaning Bohdan will miss many of his GCSE exams, including Biology this Friday.

In the meantime, the children are staying with relatives in the capital, Kyiv, which Mariana says is causing them stress and anxiety.

"My children are currently in a war zone without their mother and isolated from their friends."

According to Mariana, in Kyiv they hear air raid sirens up to five times a day and regularly spend time in shelters.

Russia regularly targets the capital with cruise missiles and drones.

Daryna Buchko recently spent her 15th birthday in Kyiv without her parents.

"My children feel sad and anxious without me," Mariana said.

Monk's Walk school in Hertfordshire confirmed the two older children, who would usually be in attendance at the school, are believed to be in Ukraine.

According to the family, Bohdan is autistic and has gone down a year at school.

The family said two special education needs and disabilities members of staff have arranged to sit with him while he sits his GCSE exams.

Beverley Piggott, of Welwyn, Hertfordshire, hosted the Buchko family for six months when they first moved to the UK. She says the process of sponsoring them to move to the UK in 2022 was much quicker.

She said she has spent the past three weeks attempting to get the family back to the UK.

"I have made hundreds of phone calls and sent hundreds of emails to our local MP, the Ukrainian embassy, British embassy, Home Office, Foreign Office and so-on.

"I am desperate to get these children back to the UK with their mother.

"It is absolutely heartbreaking."