‘How will they unite with their family?’: Ukrainians seeking visas in Australia face impossible deadline

The snap decision of the Department of Home Affairs to terminate temporary humanitarian stay visas in less than eight days has created an impossible race against time for thousands of Ukrainians attempting to reach Australia. Getting to a plane, let alone on a plane, is a financial and logistical luxury that many Ukrainians fleeing the war cannot afford.

Australian-based Ukrainian Julia Semeniuk says that the looming July 14 deadline is barely enough time to land a flight from Europe to Australia, and that’s after making it out of Ukraine.

“For them to get from one side of Ukraine to the other, can take a week. It is near impossible to get them out of the country to meet the deadline, let alone to Australia,” she said.

Add to that slim pickings and exorbitant prices, and Semeniuk anticipates huge numbers of Ukrainians unable to reconnect with family. “If you look at a booking site and try and find flights from Europe it’s very hard because it’s school holidays — they’re super expensive,” she said. “$3000 one way and that’s just not affordable for most people.”

Under the Morrison government, Ukrainians already in Australia or set to travel to Australia were promised temporary humanitarian visas. The two-step process (449 visa followed by 786 visa) allows recipients to stay in the country for up to three years.

According to a spokesperson from the Department of Home Affairs, over 8000 predominantly temporary visas have been issued to Ukrainians forced to flee Russia’s military invasion, but less than half have been taken up. Of the Ukrainians who have entered Australia since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 23, more than 3700 have been granted a subclass 449 visa, while 1767 have progressed to phase two and received a 786 visa.

Stefan Romaniw, co-chair of The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations, told Crikey the organisation has been in contact with Immigration Minister Andrew Giles about reconsidering and resolving the July 14 cut-off. While pressure mounts on the government to extend humanitarian visas for Ukrainians, and match the rhetoric from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in his recent trip to Ukraine, Romaniw and those in the Ukrainian community are understanding that the system ultimately has its limits.

“There’s a war. We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Australia may need to offer more, not less, places. But at a point in time, we understand that government has got to make some realistic decisions,” Romaniw said.

While Semeniuk agrees that governments cannot provide open-ended visas, she would like to see the government reconsider the hard cut-off to avoid closing the door on the reunification of Ukrainian families already in Australia. Any Ukrainian refugee in Australia who leaves the country will relinquish their temporary protection visa here and won’t be recognised as a refugee elsewhere. This is a problem for split up families.

“The families that came to Australia are mostly just women and children — there are no men,” she said. “The men are back in Ukraine. If they can leave Ukraine, they won’t make it here in time so how will they unite with their family?”