A visa centre being set up in northern France to assist Ukrainian refugees will not offer appointments or walk-in access, and its exact location will not be made public, the Home Office has confirmed.

Earlier, a Downing Street spokesman told reporters the centre in Lille would “start accepting appointments” from Thursday, but that has been contradicted by a statement released by the Home Office.

“We have taken urgent action to process visas at speed for all those eligible to the Ukraine Family Scheme, while carrying out vital security checks,” it said.

“We have protected appointments at all of our visa application centres to ensure there is sufficient capacity and deployed extra staff to help people through the process as quickly as possible.

“In light of the risk from criminals actively operating in the area around Calais, we have set up a new temporary Visa Application Centre in Lille which will open tomorrow focused on referrals only for people in the area eligible for the scheme.”

On Tuesday the Home Secretary announced a “bespoke visa application centre” was “en route to Calais”, but said it would be setup away from the town to prevent “choke points” around the port – yesterday it emerged the centre would be based in Lille, more than 70 miles away from Calais.

Sky News understands access to the centre will be reserved for Ukrainians who arrive in Calais and are deemed the most vulnerable by UK officials stationed at the French port town.

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Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper criticised the government’s position in a social media post: “Good grief. Why is Priti Patel not sorting this out?

“Do people now have to go all the way to Calais before they can – maybe – be sent back to Lille? This is making it harder not easier for desperate Ukrainian families.”

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman also expressed concern about the Home Office handling of the visa process for refugees.

Rob Behrens said: “It is vital the Home Office acts to correct failings in its handling of visa applications, especially failings we have previously reported and which we are seeing repeated here”

“In this horrendous situation swift action is needed to make sure the process of getting a visa is simple, accessible and quick. Lives depend on it.”

Earlier Transport Secretary Grant Shapps defended the government’s decision to setup the temporary centre away from Calais, saying: “We do not want to see this mixed up with the wider issue of people traffickers and criminal gangs in Calais, so we don’t want to attract people to Calais without having the paperwork resolved in the first place before they get there.”

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