We’re praising another committee this week, then, Suzy—there’s a theme appearing here. I’d like to thank the Chair and the other members of the committee—most of the members of the committee—for agreeing to this report. It’s actually one of the most rewarding experiences that I’ve had in a long time. Quite often, we may go to outreach events where there is a decent number of people attending, but it’s not as many as we might have anticipated, sometimes. I turned up at the YMCA in Swansea and the place was reeling with people—people falling out of the doors because there wasn’t enough room for them to engage with me and Joyce Watson, who were there on behalf of the committee.

For me, the biggest thing was that they wanted to be heard and they wanted to make a difference in the country that they had arrived in, which was Wales. They wanted to impress upon politicians that they deserved to have that voice and that they are worthy of that voice, and I pledged from that day on to make sure that I would try to represent them to the best of my ability.

The area that was the biggest issue of concern for them in that particular public meeting was housing. I do thank the Cabinet Secretary, actually, for being quite forward thinking—he’s allowed me to meet with civil servants to discuss these particular issues. I’ve also met with Swansea council, who’ve said to me directly that because of the changes and the recommendations of the committee they too are putting forward protocol changes in how they inspect properties.

But, what we could see loud and clear was that some of the properties that people were living in were abysmal—utterly abysmal. Nobody should have to live in a house like that, whether they’re from Syria, whether they’re from Iraq or whether they’re from Aberfan—they should not have to live in those types of conditions. So, I’ve personally met with Clearsprings on many occasions now to make home inspections, and they’re changing their practices. I think it’s important that we make sure that the recommendations in the report are heard loud and clear by Clearsprings, and that they are heard by the UK Government when they go forward in renewing that contract.

We need to have stiffer monitoring; we need to have equalities training for staff, because we heard from asylum seekers that they were not treated fairly in many instances by those who entered their properties; and we need to make sure that there’s an independent complaints procedure, if not an independent complaints mechanism. Many people didn’t feel comfortable in ringing Clearsprings, because they were the company that had alienated them the most when they first arrived in the UK. I hope that those are things that the Cabinet Secretary will carry forth and pursue.

We also had lots of evidence from those who came into the committee that they actually wanted to devolve this responsibility to the National Assembly for Wales, and I would also hope therefore that the Cabinet Secretary would push to be able to do that. I know that the housing sector here say that they are competent and able to do that, so why not devolve it, when we have all of the other housing responsibilities here in this place?

With regard to other areas of interest, I thought it was really harrowing to hear one psychiatrist who came to give evidence. He said that a lot young people who arrived in the UK had sexually transmitted diseases. This, for me, was something awful to hear as part of an evidence session. So, I note your response in saying that more money is going into CAMHS, but what can we be doing in particular for these people, who’ve gone through trauma that we will never be able to understand and have gone through experiences that we will never get to grips with? So, what specific training are you going to be able to provide for those CAMHS officials that would be different to how they would deal with, potentially, other conditions here in Wales?

Another issue for me—I’ve got so many on this agenda, as you can see—I’ve met asylum seekers and they’ve said, ‘Yes, I want to learn English or Welsh, but I want to be able to do that in a way that is relevant to me’. So, I’ve met a plumber from Syria who lives in Neath, and he says, ‘Well, I want to learn English, but I don’t want to just go into a room and sit there. Academia, sitting at a table, actually, is really intimidating for me. So, can I do an apprenticeship course in plumbing or electrical appliances, but can I do the English learning through that particular course?’ He said there’s nothing available for him to be able to do that at the moment. So, I hope that’s something, again, that if not directly reflected in the report—now that I’ve said it, you can look into it further, Cabinet Secretary.

In the time I’ve got left, I think it’s important that we address the cultural and integration issues. I think it’s important that we don’t see this as just a responsibility for the refugees to integrate amongst us; that we need to change our attitudes also towards refugees and asylum seekers. It’s really unfortunate that we had one member of the committee putting out some document that did not represent the views of what we heard in committee. We are proud as a nation to welcome refugees, and we are proud to support those refugees and we should not shy away from doing so.