A DISTRAUGHT Bolton couple are appealing to the Home Secretary to lift what they describe as a British-made 'Iron Curtain' which threatens to rip their family apart. Vera Tymchyshyn and her husband Yaroslaw of Bramcote Avenue, The Haulgh fears that unless Jack Straw steps in to help, she could never see her Ukrainian relatives again. She has accused the British Consul in Kiev of an "injustice" after her sister was refused permission to visit the couple's twin daughters' Christening.

Despite four previous visits to Bolton from the Ukraine which went without a hitch, Nadiya Drapak, was twice refused visas by the British Consul within seven months.

And on the last occasion, Yaroslaw claims his sister-in-law was told: "As a 36-year-old single woman another application will only be considered if your circumstances alter".

He is pressing for the case to be taken up by Mr Straw, and he and Vera are threatening to go to the European Court of Human Rights if that fails.

In his letter to Mr Straw, Yaroslaw, says: "The Iron Curtain between East and West Europe supposedly came down in 1991 with the demise of the USSR, but it seems to us that the British Consul in Kiev has erected its own 'Iron Curtain' to stop genuine relatives in Ukraine from visiting their families in Great Britain."

He explains: "My sister-in-law has had two recent applications refused. The first application was a joint one with her mother who is a near cripple and suffers from arthritis. We had planned for my sister-in-law to be a godmother to one of our twins and to help her mother, who has never left Ukraine, never mind visiting Britain, to come her and see her sister whom she has not seen for years.

"My mother-in-law was granted a visa but my sister-in-law was not.

"The implications were that my mother-in-law had to abandon her planned visit and no one from my wife's immediate family was at the Christening. My mother-in-law's health has now deteriorated to such an extent that such a visit is now impossible.

"My sister-in-law has visited these shores four times previously. She has never outstayed her time limit, she has never stepped outside the law, in fact she was a model visitor.

"I would give any guarantee that my sister would return to the Ukraine after her visit." 'They won't

let babies'

Godmother

into UK' Vera and Yaroslaw Tymchyshyn with Lilya, four, and six-month-old twins Sofia and Christina. (Ref: F1513/8)

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.