I HAVE to admit I have rarely felt as incensed as when I heard Home Secretary Priti Patel talking about Ukraine, declaring: “It’s the first time in the world anyone has opened their borders to refu-gees like the UK has.”

And then she heartlessly said that Ukrainian refugees in Calais seeking entry to UK “can easily get a train to Brussels or Paris, both are close by” in order to complete a visa application.

Ms Patel, herself the daughter of Ugandan immigrants, went on to state that a visa centre had been set up in Calais. When challenged by Tory MP Sir Roger Gale she back tracked. He went on to say her statement “was untrue and under any normal administration that would be a resigning matter”.

Sadly this inept government is not a “normal administration”.

The fact is that while all other European countries are waiving visa requirements and offering free accommodation, food, healthcare and safety for these desperate refugees, many seeking to join relatives in the UK, need to ask for an appointment in Brussels or Paris, wait up to 10 days, pay £75 per person visa fee, and a £150 per family processing fee. Fast track is available for an extra £575.

Many left everything behind, and even passports in some cases. How do we expect them to com-plete these onerous applications and pay for them?

The UK Government claims “we have a very unique scheme, it’s the first of it’s kind in the world and it cannot be measured against any other country”.

The reality is that it can be measured and it’s a big fail. At the latest count just before the weekend, Poland had taken 1,204,403 Ukrainian refugees, Hungary 191,348, Slovakia 140,745, Moldova 82,762, Romania 82,062, Germany 30,000, France 2,500, Ireland 2,200 but the UK only granted 500 visas.

Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister and justice secretary who is himself the son of a Czech immigrant father, even suggested that a more generous refugee policy would undermine public support for refugees.

But the Government is dragging its feet and doing far less than the EU. The former head of the Ar-my, Lord Richard Dannatt, slammed the UK’s response to refugee crisis as “unacceptable and slow”.

In a letter to Ms Patel, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin says 150 Ukrainian refugees, in-cluding a British citizen David Carter with his Ukrainian wife and two children, have been turned back at Calais, and accused the Home Secretary of a “lack of humanity” and a “completely unsuitable” response.

I am afraid that his words about a “lack of humanity” towards a brave, innocent, scared Ukrainian people being indiscriminately slaughtered by a mad Russian president sums up this woeful government response and I for one as a UK citizen feel ashamed of them. Have they learnt nothing from the shambolic evacuation of Afghanistan where refugees who helped our forces are still awaiting entry to the UK?

The response of many British citizens in raising more than £100m towards the Ukrainian appeal in record time is humbling, and typical of our caring nation. The Government needs to show some empathy, relax ridiculous obstacles and welcome these poor people with open arms. But will it?

  • Professor Ahmet Fuat has been a GP in Darlington for 35 years. The views are his own and do not represent any organisation he works with