Refugee Week 2023 falls on the 19th to the 25th of June, and as we have already heard 2023 also marks the 25th anniversary of Refugee Week.
Refugee Week is the world’s largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary, founded in 1998 in the UK and held every year around World Refugee Day on 20th June.
The theme of Refugee Week 2023 is compassion, chosen in the belief - that “together we can create a shared understanding of compassion to ensure we are extending it widely to all”.
Responding to your previous Statements on both Ukraine and Nation of Sanctuary, I repeatedly raised the issue of housing and proposed modular housing as part of the solution, as in Ireland. In your response to me on the 9th May, you referred to the need to remove our Ukrainian guests into longer term accommodation, some of which is modular accommodation developed across Wales.
What, if any, specific allocation is being provided for refugees?
Further, now that the £150m fund to help Ukrainians into their own homes has been formally announced by the UK government, including £8 million for Wales, will the Minister confirm how this will be allocated and whether it will be distributed via the Welsh Government/or to Councils to help Ukrainian families into private rented accommodation and find work, as in England?
As I re-stated to you in my reply on 9th May, “we have long provided a safe haven for victims of persecution, violence, ethnic cleansing and genocide from across the World, and long may that remain the case, because if we ever lose that, we'll have lost our humanity and true identity”.
In this context, how does the Minister respond to this week’s report from the (Labour-Chaired) Home Affairs Committee in the UK Parliament which found little evidence to indicate significant numbers of Albanian nationals are at risk in their own country and require asylum in the UK, although:
- some Albanian citizens making asylum claims will have been trafficked,
- women are disproportionately at risk from this form of crime.
- And the UK has an obligation to support trafficking victims, and they should only be returned to Albania if appropriate safeguards are in place.
How do you respond to the deal announced last Thursday to overhaul the EU’s asylum procedures:
- ensuring that certain asylum seekers get processed immediately at the border
- making it easier to return those whose applications are rejected.
- and allowing countries to stop processing people at the border if they reach a certain limit?
Responding to you on 9th May, I referred to concerns raised by residents of Northop Hall Flintshire, over plans to house 400 single male Asylum seekers in the former Northop Hall Country House Hotel, where the Chair of Northop Hall Community Council stated:
“ 400 single males will increase the total population of the village by 25%. I can't believe there will not be a drain on community facilities which are already over extended."
“With only three bus services in the village each day, people would have ‘nowhere to go’.”
In your response, you stated that although the Welsh Government is not responsible for the procurement and provision of accommodation for those who are dispersed to Wales, this will have to go through the planning process in Wales and you were in dialogue with the UK Government regarding the dignity and respect that should be accorded to Asylum Seekers fleeing war and persecution.
Later this month I will be meeting the Northop Hall village Action Group for them to brief me on what is being proposed for their village, and their concerns about inadequate infrastructure and that this is the wrong place for Asylum Seekers to be placed while they are being screened.
What message would you like me to give regarding your engagement with this?
When I last visited Mold Job Centre Plus, I learned about the great work they were doing supporting Ukrainians keen to work and contribute. In this context, can you provide an update on English for Speakers of Other Languages courses, ESOL, and on the transferability of their qualifications to Wales?
Finally, you conclude by referring to the “Windrush Generation”.
With 22nd June marking 75 years since MV Empire Windrush docked in Tilbury, let us therefore remember that their arrival marked a seminal moment in Britain’s history, and has come to stand for the rich diversity of the UK family of nations.