An Irishman living in Kyiv has called on the Government to issue temporary visas, so he can bring his Ukrainian wife and family to Ireland.
Brendan Murphy told RTÉ radio’s News at One that Ireland was the only European country that requires a visa. There was a backlog of a year for such visas which were issued in Moscow and required detailed documents some of which took a long time to source, he added.
Mr Murphy wants to bring his wife, her mother, her daughter and granddaughter to Ireland temporarily until the current situation in Ukraine was resolved. He had not received an official response from the Department of Justice other than “a general email” advising Irish citizens to leave Ukraine.
“It was a general email to leave the country, those circumstances would mean that either I abandon my family or I take them to Warsaw or the Czech Republic and become a displaced person.”
If he and his family were to take the option of going to a third country it would require him to pay for accommodation for an undetermined length of time.
It was not an option to leave his family behind, he said.
There was no reason why there should be delays in issuing visas in the circumstances. Ireland could easily align itself with other European countries “and get rid of this nightmare.”
In the meantime people in Kyiv were concerned, but there was no panic buying, he said.
