THE owner of a seaside cafe has offered to sponsor two visas for Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion.

Alex Coombes, owner of Perch, based in Brighton Road in Lancing and Princes Park in Eastbourne, said he was offering the sponsorship, as well as covering the cost of travel, to help those seeking refuge within the current constraints of the system.

He said that "seeing people in crisis who want a solution out of it" prompted him to find a way to be able to help.

Alex said: "If we can play some part in that, we’re very happy to do so.

"We’re about to open a new restaurant in Worthing, so we’ve got space inside our team and we’ve got a number of short-term rental properties so we can be able to put people up.

"I think a lot of people are going to want to return home at some stage so it might just be that we offer some temporary respite.

"Because of the current state of the visa system, we’re talking about offering someone a mid to long-term job. It’s not possible for us to say ‘come here and we’ll look after you for a couple weeks until you work out what to do next’.

"The process is very much driven, in its current state, to a long-term job offer."

The Argus: Refugees fleeing the Ukrainian city of Lviv towards the Polish border following Russia's invasion of Ukraine: credit - PA/Manny Marotta/Refugees fleeing the Ukrainian city of Lviv towards the Polish border following Russia's invasion of Ukraine: credit - PA/Manny Marotta/

He said that the company would review their offer if the visa system is changed by the government in the coming days.

Alex criticised the government’s current approach to Ukrainian refugees and said: "I would much rather if we just said people who are fleeing conflict had somewhere safe to go and it didn’t involve the actions of somebody trying to work their way around a visa system to try and facilitate that.

"I suspect at the moment people don’t need the offer of a job, they need the offer of somewhere safe to stay, and if we can do that by offering them a supported visa programme, then we’re very happy to look at it."

Since the conflict broke out last week, more than half a million people have fled Ukraine, according to UN estimates.