£1M Donated To Ukraine Appeal

The government is donating £1 million to the island's Ukraine appeal.

It will complement the donations being made to the Bailiff's fund.

Donations to that fund are being accepted to go towards supporting the Ukrainian people.

Donations can be made:

• By cheque - payable to 'The Bailiff's Ukraine Appeal' and sent to Royal Court House, Royal Square, St Helier, Jersey, JE1 1BA.
• By e-form on the government website.
• By donation to Side by Side to receive the tax benefit of charitable donations

Jersey Overseas Aid has already pledged £360,000.

The government funding is directly available to the JOA.

The commission will direct the funding to the agencies and locations most in need of support.

Chief Minister Senator John Le Fondre says he's delighted to announce the government funding, after what he calls the 'horrific scenes' coming out of Ukraine.

"It is obviously a significant sum. We think it's appropriate given the size of the potential numbers of people who've been displaced by the horrific Russian invasion of a sovereign country.

We'll be putting some information out (about more support for Ukraine) over the next day or so. We're trying to make it as easy as possible to make donations.

If people want to make financial donations, there will be a place on the gov website that will give you a button to click on to make an online donation.

If not, cheques can be sent to the Bailiff's Office for the Bailiff's Appeal."

The Chief Minister says an additional sum has been set aside for funding that could be needed for any Ukrainian nationals who come to Jersey.

The States Assembly voted yesterday (3 March) to direct Ministers to work with the UK Home Office to allow more Ukrainian refugees with Jersey relatives to the island.

Senator Le Fondre says they will mirror the UK's arrangements regarding allowing wider relatives to come in for immigration purposes.

The UK Home Secretary announced an extension of visa rules to the UK earlier this week, to help Ukrainians 'seek sanctuary'.

Jersey's Chief Minister has told Channel 103 that around 26 direct enquiries have been made to the government so far (as of 4 March).

"It is difficult, at this stage, to put the total number because that's enquiries, not number of relatives. Obviously, it will be bigger than that.

I think until we know exact circumstances, I'd rather not place a precise number on the number of people we're expecting.

We want to try and make direct assistance, in terms of on-island, to those people who are directly connected within the island already, but let's put it this way, this has only been going on for just over a week and we'll have to see how matters change over the coming weeks and assess what other responses we need to do.

We'll try and therefore go for a multi-pronged approach in terms of helping people.

One approach is those directly connected to people on-island already and the other one is the significant financial support to help people in other countries who've been displaced from Ukraine and to help support them in those immediate dire needs that they're presently facing."

Meanwhile, scammers pretending to be from Ukraine are attempting to befriend people in Jersey to ask for money for a taxi fare.

Jersey Police are calling on islanders to 'be vigilant in these uncertain times.'