<p>Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders</p>

Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:51 pm on 20 September 2016.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 1:51, 20 September 2016

Well, I’m not going to take lectures from somebody who was a Thatcherite trumpet blower back in the 1980s. But I’ll agree with him on one point: there should be a European solution. But the problem is we are now not going to be part of the European solution because we won’t be in Europe. That’s the issue. We won’t have a voice in it. But he’s right: it’s hugely important this is treated as a European challenge and that all European countries rise to that challenge. Let’s not forget that it’s within living memory that millions of people were actually refugees within Europe and were moving from one country to another in massive population exchanges at the end of the war and, indeed, in Yugoslavia in the 1990s. So, sometimes we forget our own history when we talk about refugees. I welcome what he said about the need to make sure that people who are genuine refugees are given help and asylum. I understand the point he makes about uncontrolled immigration. I don’t argue for uncontrolled immigration; of course there have to be limits on what any country can accept. We must be hugely careful not to suggest that those people who are fleeing war and are desperate and have seen people drown in the Aegean sea in the eastern Mediterranean somehow are simply looking for a better paid job. I just don’t buy that, I’m sorry.