Priti Patel last week announced that 100,000 more Ukrainians refugees would be permitted to seek sanctuary in the UK under relaxed immigration rules, before public pressure forced the UK government to increase the limit to 200,000 people.

It is understood that more than 10,000 people have applied for the UK’s Ukraine Family Scheme since Friday, but official figures show that just 50 applications have been processed so far.

Under the scheme Ukrainian refugees who have family settled in the UK can apply to come to Britain for three years.

France has now publicly criticised the UK over its treatment of Ukrainian refugees – particularly those stuck in the French port of Calais.

French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said he had twice contacted Patel and asked her to set-up a consulate in Calais.

He claimed many of the hundreds of displaced people arriving at the port had been turned away by British officials who told them to get visas at UK consulates in Paris or Brussels – hundreds of miles away, calling it “a bit inhumane”.

“The British must put their rhetoric into action, I’ve heard the big words of generosity from Mr [Boris] Johnson,” Darmanin said.

However, Patel said it was “wrong and inaccurate” and that she had a number of staff in Calais “to provide support to Ukrainian families”.

Patel told Sky News: “This is the first scheme that is up and running in the world in this short space of time.

“I am surging staff across all application centres across the entire European Union as well as in the border countries such as Poland where huge numbers of people are coming through.”

Property Industry Eye has been contacted by a number of landlords willing to provide accommodation to Ukrainian refugees, following a request by the government to make more accommodation available to those in need of some where to live.

Landlords asked to help provide homes for Ukrainian refugees