Accommodation & Travel Costs: Ukrainians to UK

*UPDATE: We have now seen over 700 people arrive in the U.K. through our system! It has been incredible to watch visas come through and host families meet refugees at the airport with a massive hug. Thank you so much for your support!*

LoveBristol and friends have been at the Polish/Ukrainian border for almost three months now. Our role in Przemysl has evolved from delivering supplies to go into Ukraine & buying food for refugees to also include supporting Ukrainian refugees who are hoping to come to the U.K.

We are helping to hand-hold Ukrainian people through the visa process, by matching refugees with host families in the U.K. and offering temporary accommodation until visas come through and then transport by land or air back to the U.K.

Due to the U.K. Government's rigid visa restrictions, this process is long and complicated, taking at least 12-21 days and often travel between different cities. Refugee centres can only offer beds for one or two nights - not nearly enough time to sort U.K. paperwork.

Therefore, we are sourcing temporary accommodation for the refugees who visit us for support; some of this has been offered to us for free by churches but as our work expands, we will need to house many Ukrainian refugees in hotels whilst their paperwork is processed.

We are providing companions to travel with each group coming to the U.K. and then onward travel to U.K. Host homes.

We now also have a base in Warsaw, working with refugees who are coming through this route.

To offer an idea of these costs: 

- £50 would pay for one family room for three people, including breakfast

- £75 would cover most flights from Poland to the UK

- £750 would cover the entire visa process per person

Please share this GoFundMe widely so that we can help as many Ukrainian refugees as possible. We want to show that - despite the shortfalls of our Government's response - the U.K. welcomes the Ukrainian people with open arms.