Asylum Seekers and Refugees

Part of 2. Questions to the Leader of the House and Chief Whip (in respect of her policy responsibilities) – in the Senedd at 3:13 pm on 18 April 2018.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 3:13, 18 April 2018

Yes, I'm aware of both of those aspects already. In a recent refugee and asylum group that, again, I chair, that was raised and we raised with the Home Office unintended consequences of some of their policies, because some of these things are happening because of the issue about no recourse to public funds until you've got various levels of status. Unfortunately, we're seeking to extend free transport to all asylum seekers and refugees in Wales, but we need to be sure that that won't then be added to the list of public funds to which you have no recourse as soon as we make that statement. We are in the process of actually working through some of the complexities of that, so I'm very well aware.

In my own constituency, I have a number of people with whom I'm working who have a very similar problem. Similarly, with the voluntary work, we think it's an unintended consequence of the hostile environment, now called the compliance environment, that the UK Government has put in place, but we think it is actually an unintended consequence of it, so we're looking to see what we can do to draw that to their attention and get those rules changed.