For a group of 250 Ukrainians marooned at a motorway hotel in Wales, life under the Homes for Ukraine scheme — so welcoming at first — has been turning sour.
The Welsh government had originally promised the families they would be rehoused within weeks. Instead, they have been stranded, in some cases, for more than four months. Eating the same sandwich suppers, anxious about how their children will be schooled and with no near-term prospect of moving on, their hopes are fading.
“It’s like we have been thrown away in the wilderness,” said Ibrahim Dally, a 25-year-old dentist originally from Lebanon, but who studied, married, and settled in Ukraine before fleeing the Russian invasion.