BRITAIN must offer sanctuary to refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion, charities demanded today, as they slammed the lack of safe and legal routes. 

The United Nations estimates that more than 100,000 Ukrainians have already fled across the border after Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine.

Major human rights groups including Amnesty International, Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee have urged ministers to prepare to take in thousands of refugees.

In a letter published by The Times, they wrote: “A generation ago, the UK saved the lives of thousands of families from the Balkans through an evacuation and resettlement programme.

“The government should now respond with a well-resourced initiative working with councils across the country, to welcome Ukrainians who need sanctuary.”

Echoing the calls, the TUC urged the British government to “play its part in supporting humanitarian assistance for forcibly displaced people and to welcome refugees.”

The Home Office revealed on Thursday however that it had shut off the only safe legal route for the majority of Ukrainians to enter Britain, announcing it has suspended visa services. 

Only relatives of British nationals can still apply for visas. 

Campaigners said that the Ukraine crisis again demonstrates the flawed logic of the Tories’ “harmful” Nationality and Borders Bill, which seeks to criminalise asylum-seekers who enter Britain via irregular routes. 

Refugee Action head of campaigns Mariam Kemple Hardy said: “Ukraine has thrown into sharp focus just how dysfunctional the government’s refugee protection system is – and how much worse it will become. 
 
“There are next to no safe routes for people to reach the UK and seek safety here and the anti-refugee Bill will criminalise, offshore, detain and push back those that try to get here by themselves. 

“The government must commit to an ambitious and long-term refugee resettlement programme so systems are in place when tragedies such as Ukraine and Afghanistan unfold and scrap its inhumane and unworkable Bill.”

Under the Bill, which returns to the Commons on Monday, only asylum-seekers who enter Britain by official resettlement schemes will be guaranteed protection. 

Freedom from Torture chief executive Sonya Sceats said: “When shells are falling on your city, you simply do not have time to apply for visas and travel documents. 

“Boris Johnson promised in Parliament that Britain would receive people fleeing Ukraine, but it is clear that this Bill would prevent this government from doing so.”

Reports on Friday suggested that even family members of British nationals in Ukraine were struggling to obtain visas amid the worsening conflict. 

And campaigners called on Britain to scrap visa requirements completely, following a similar move by Ireland on Thursday. 

Migrant rights campaigner and Black Activists Rising Against Cuts national chair Zita Holbourne said the insistence for Ukrainian refugees to apply for visas exposes how Britain’s border regime is “stopping those in urgent need to flee for their safety.

“The requirement for a family visa in order to arrive by plane will mean Ukrainian refugees may have no other choice but to take alternative routes,” she warned. 

“Under the provisions the government wants to introduce in the Nationality and Borders Bill [this] would deem them to have not come via a ‘safe and legal route’ … leaving them at risk and displaced.”

It comes as thousands are gearing up to oppose the Borders Bill on Sunday, February 27, at a national demo outside the Home Office in London. Protesters will assemble at 12pm before marching to Parliament Square.