“Europe without Barriers” posts the open letter of tourist companies, which reflects the massive obstructing of study tours for hundreds of Ukrainian children in the UK. We believe these facts are those of the great social value and will make efforts to clarify all circumstances of this case, particularly through the formal appeal to the British Embassy in Ukraine
Dear Sir/Madame,
With this letter, leading tour operators in the direction of the “Education Abroad” address you. In recent years, Ukraine has enjoyed a significant increase of interest in studding at educational institutions of Great Britain, and many companies from Ukraine, together with educational institutions and education providers of Great Britain are working on distribution of information on perspectivity and availability of education in Britain at various levels for Ukrainian citizens – the vast majority for children and adolescents. Ukrainian tour operators and British language schools take significant efforts, spend time and money, organize and participate in various events and exhibitions in order to deliver true and complete information to Ukrainian citizens. However, numerous visa refusals from British Embassy for children and adolescents, who planned to travel for studding English in Britain, cause deep concern.
All rejections, in any way, are associated with children’s habitation during their stay in Great Britain and with that the embassy could not get confirmation from the host families about that these families really are planning to accept children. Having analyzed the situation thoroughly, it may safely be said, that the implementation of Consular Division requirements is not possible for any participant of this process: for school, for the applicant, for Ukrainian company. Even the implementation of new / repeated submission for visa by given applikants, as it is usually recommended, in no case will not solve the problem, and moreover it won’t let any opportunity to fulfill the existing requirements.
In accordance with the applicable requirements, specified on the official website http://www.ukvac-ua.com/ukraine/applying.aspx, in visa application it must be specified the exact address, where the child will reside, for example, if it is a family, the address of this family, should be specified. It is also recommended to submit the application in advance to the date of the trip, since 90% of cases are treated during the 15 days period, and therefore the applications must be submitted at least one month before the trip.
Currently the following situation has formed:
1.Compliance of the first requirement is not always possible in combination with the second requirement. Many language schools, which have long experience in this area, accredited by authorized institutions of Great Britain, can confirm that the determination of family is rather troublesome process. In practice, and much less during the season, the final approval of family data is fulfilled in a period of 4-2 weeks before the arrival of children. And a British language school, in particular, is the guarantee and the the contractor of that the child will have a proper place of residence in accordance with all existing requirements. Unfortunately, it has become a typical situation, when documents submission for 1-2 months before departure ends with the refusal due to lack of clear data about the host family.
2. Trying to keep to these two requirements of the British embassy all at once, another company submitted in the required timescale and provided data on the residence. However, it happened unforeseen situation, which forced the school to change the family just at the moment, when the documents were under assessment. Up to now there is no single opportunity for companies, that arrange travels for children to get information about at what stage is the trial in the embassy, also there is no possibility to accomplish proper informing about changes or new facts of Border and Immigration Service of Great Britain and British Embassy in Kiev, because communication with the Embassy is performed only by e-mail (or mail) while the answer is supposed in 20 days term.
Visa refusal for the child has become the result of this situation as well and more so during the term, too close to departure date, in order to exercise the right for new submission.
4. Also the next situation has occurred: the documents of the children’s group were submitted in one day, but one of the students submitted the documents one week later. After 2 weeks she received visa, but in visa was specified the previous leader of the group (during the assignment of the documents the leader was changed to another person due to illness). When the documents were returned to the consulate for reissuance of visa, the visa was canceled, and in the refusal was written that the visa officer could not verify the residence.
Thus, for any situation, there are no chances that the change of the families or repeated assignment of the same families will definitely lead to positive result, since there are no variants, when without prior approval of a certain date and time with the family, the school or Ukrainian representative will be able to provide the presence of someone of the family at home, or, for example, picking up the handset of cell phone during working hours.
Taking all abovementioned into account, considering implementation impossibility of the proposed requirements and that official terms of consideration of the submission for a visa makes 15 working days and officially determined possible terms of reply receipt for request by e-mail makes up to 20 days, considerable amount of children could not be able to go to Great Britain for education this year. While all the documents for children were performed in accordance with the Embassy requirements. All language schools (the host party in the Great Britain) are accredited by British Council. The documents were submitted in advance. Ukrainian companies and organizers of children travels work in this direction not the first year and have a good reputation.
The biggest concern raises the fact that in this situation Ukrainian children suffer! UN Convention on the Rights of the Child sets the standards for the protection of the children, one of the fundamental principles of which is nondiscrimination of the child. In this situation the Ukrainian children suffer discrimination, particularly because of their nationality, no doubt that children from European Union do not have such problem. Also under this Convention, every child has the right for development. Travels with educational purposes to Great Britain in every way promote the development of a child’s personality, raise the level of language skills, promote the communication with peers from other countries. As noted in one of her appeals of Ukraine Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Nina Karpachova: «The main duty of the adults is to combine efforts and to do everything to defend the right of our children for a happy childhood and a decent life, to save them from poverty, disappointment and unbelief bitterness».
In connection with this you are kindly requested:
– to help, as soon as possible, to organize the meetting with authorized representatives of Border and Immigration Service of Great Britain under Embassy in Kiev with the aim of positive solution of this problem, so that specified children were able to visit the Great Britain and did not pay any visa fee for the second time.
– to help with early receipt of detailed explanations from the Border and Immigration Service of Great Britain under Embassy in Kyiv on further visa submission of the children, to prevent in advance such misunderstandings and to make education in Great Britain available for Ukrainian children.
I would like to note that all undersigned сompanies, always treated and treat with complete respect to all the law and / or procedures of Border and Immigration Service of Great Britain under Embassy of Great Britain in Kyiv and the Visa Application Centre in Kiev, but we would be very grateful for respectful treatment to Ukrainian children, for respect to their right for education and freedom of movement and, most important, to make it possible.
Sincerely and with gratitude for the participation,
Azaria Company, Alla Mykolaevna Solomakha, Director Tel.: (+44) 236-19-12
Bright Travel Company, Natalia Stepanivna Stasiuk, Deputy Director
Tel.: (+44) 2450519, +38 0503888855
Britur Ukraine Company, Dmytro Nedayvozov, Director Tel.: (+44) 390 09 99)
Bernatskaya Nataliya, manager, Tel.: +38 063-657-33-04
DEC Company, Natalia Tarchenko, Director, Tel.: (+44) 3907624, (+38) 0676807517)
Colizei Company, Studentland TM, Roman Rastvortsev, Director, Tel.: (+44) 2308373, +(38) 0676583188)
Lider-tour Company, Zoya Lvivna Chaus, Director, Tel.: +(44) 537-25-45, +38(067)4021440
TLC-Kiev Company, Boris Molodtsov, Tel.: +(44) 379-20-78
Ukrtehintur Company, UTI travel and education, Oleg Anatolievich, Director
Olena Goryaynova, manager, Tel.: +38 050 528 46 35
