Britain said Monday it was sending visa officers to the French port of Calais to help expedite the processing of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion, after its response was slammed as a “disgrace” by one lawmaker. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced £175 million ($230 million, 210 million euros) in new funding for Ukraine’s government, taking its total aid to nearly £400 million. “We are absolutely determined to be as generous as we possibly can and as I speak to you all we are processing thousands of applications,” he told reporters after talks with the Dutch and Canadian prime ministers. “We are putting people out in all the surrounding countries –- into Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, as well as into Calais, France –- to make sure we receive people and help people to come.” Home Secretary Priti Patel said the government was creating a bespoke “visa application centre” (VAC) in Calais, but away from its main port to avoid a “choke point” after years of cross-Channel migrant passages. France’s Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin on Saturday accused Britain of a “lack of humanity” after saying that 150 Ukrainian refugees were turned back at the Channel port, and told to file applications at UK embassies in Paris or Brussels. Britain’s opposition Labour party said there was still no sign of the promised VAC in Calais, and noted that Home Office figures showed only 50 Ukrainian refugees had been allowed in to Britain so far. “Just 50 visas granted to date and families turned back at Calais,” Roger Gale, an MP with Johnson’s Conservative party, told parliament. “A disgrace.” Gale referenced Patel’s own family background by noting that in 1972, Britain had taken in thousands of ethnic-Indians, after they were expelled by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, “without any difficulty at all”. The home secretary’s parents emigrated to Britain from Uganda in the years before the mass expulsion. But both Patel and Johnson said Britain could not stop all security vetting of incoming Ukrainians, after expressing concern that undercover Russian agents could try to infiltrate their numbers. The government has created two pathways for Ukrainians — family reunions with relatives already in Britain, and a new “sponsorship” scheme for organisations and individuals to bring in others. More than 10,000 have now applied in total under the family scheme, but details of the sponsorship scheme are still being worked out, the government said. Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it was “unconscionable” for people who had fled fighting to have to “jump through bureaucratic hoops” to apply for a visa. More than 1.7 million people are estimated by the UN to have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began on February 24, with over one million arriving in Poland alone.