Visas for relatives of Irish citizens fleeing Ukraine 'will be processed quickly'

Ukraine's national flag waves above the capital in Kyiv. A spokesperson for Ireland's Justice Minister Helen McEntee said applications for those looking to leave the country would be processed quickly. Picture: Efrem Lukatsky/AP

The Department of Justice has said it will ensure that visas for family members of Irish citizens fleeing Ukraine will be processed quickly.

Ireland does not have a visa-waiver arrangement with Ukraine like most EU countries, but a spokesperson for Justice Minister Helen McEntee said applications for those looking to leave the country would be processed quickly.

"The Department of Justice is reviewing its administrative arrangements to ensure it can assist Irish citizens and their family members in Ukraine speedily and with flexibility," the spokesperson said. 

"While Ukrainian nationals are not visa-exempt to enter Ireland, given the current circumstances all visa applications will be dealt with as quickly and as humanely as possible.

"This includes family applications for non-EEA family members of Irish citizens, which will be processed swiftly.

Irish officials on the ground in Kyiv are providing support to citizens as fears heightened at the weekend of a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine.

On Saturday, the Department of Foreign Affairs updated its guidance to Irish citizens in Ukraine, advising them to leave immediately. The department said around 50 Irish citizens registered with their embassy in Kyiv.

Although the advice is to leave, a number have said they intend to stay in the country for the moment.

Speaking to RTÉ’s This Week programme, photographer Bradley Stafford, from Wexford, said he received an email from the embassy advising him of the new advice.

“This is my home,” he said. “This is my wife's home. She has her grandparents here, who wouldn't be in any state to leave.

Now if it were to, God forbid, kick off, then we would have to reassess our options. 

On the same programme, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris said the Irish Government was monitoring the situation in Ukraine on an “hourly basis” and did not think a war was inevitable.

“If you see what is happening now across a number of European countries and indeed the United States, the advice seems to be quite consistent now about the importance of people leaving the Ukraine, or indeed if you were considering travelling to the Ukraine to not proceed in relation to that,” Mr Harris said. 

"We have a duty of care to Irish citizens to pass on the best advice and best thinking as we receive it."

The minister said that diplomacy should remain the key effort from countries at present in a bid to avert a further escalation.

'Particularly worrying' issue of surrogacy 

Separately, a small number of Irish parents are currently waiting for babies to be born to surrogates in Ukraine.

Mr Harris said: "This is an extremely sensitive and challenging issue. I saw a figure of about 14 babies due to be born in a very short period of time.

"What we are doing is engaging at a foreign affairs level individually with those families." 

The Department of Foreign Affairs has said it has engaged directly with all those scheduled to travel to Ukraine for surrogacy purposes, and will continue to provide advice to those affected.

Fine Gael Senator Mary Seery-Kearney has said the evolving situation has been “particularly worrying” for intending parents whose babies are due to be born in the coming days and weeks.

Two clinics supporting surrogacy had been putting contingency plans in place to support parents in this situation, she said.