The UK needs to lift its visa requirements for Ukrainians in order to see more than a "small trickle" of refugees making it to the country, the head of the British Red Cross has said. 

The charity's chief executive Mike Adamson has criticised the long process faced by refugees as part of the Homes for Ukraine scheme. 

It comes after figures released by the Home Office showed that only three per cent of people who applied for a visa managed to get to the UK.

Of the 43,600 visa applications made - only 12,500 have been granted visas so far and a fragment of that number have actually arrived in the UK.

Mr Adamson said told BBC Breakfast only a  “small trickle” of refugees are reaching the UK and that it should be made “much easier to come here”.

"It will remain a slow process with the current visa arrangements in place and it’s only if we remove those that we’ll actually start to see a steady flow."

READ MORE: Priti Patel accused of squandering chance to help Ukrainians over 'woeful' visa figures

He called for the UK to follow the example of Europe where many countries waived their visa requirements altogether. 

“Most Ukrainians have biometric passports so we can do checks on them when they get here, we can find out who they are," he added.

“And if we set up really good welcome centres and hubs, as the Government has actually promised, then we can look after them there, go through the matching processes, check out all the safety and security requirements.

“But the key thing is we get far more people here and then Britain would be playing its part at scale alongside our partners across Europe and of course showing solidarity and practical support to the people of Ukraine in this terrible situation.”

The Home Secretary on Friday apologised “with frustration” after coming under fire over “delays” in the time it is taking for Ukrainian refugees to arrive in the UK.

But Priti Patel denied visa requirements and checks are slowing the process and causing delays, insisting the UK will “absolutely see changes in numbers” as work continues.

Around 12,000 people had arrived in the UK under Ukraine visa schemes as of Tuesday, according to Home Office figures.

Some 10,800 people had arrived under the Ukraine family scheme but only 1,200 had made it to the UK as part of the Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme, provisional data published on the department’s website shows.