Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:28 pm on 29 January 2019.
I'd like to thank Huw Irranca-Davies for his questions and for reporting on his experience, and particularly that experience with the Joseph Herman Foundation. I think the miners' welfare hall in Ystradgynlais and the fact that all over Wales, as you know, there are communities welcoming Syrian refugees—it's transforming communities as well as transforming lives for those refugees.
I just want to say, on the Dubs amendment, that our latest statistics show that Welsh local authorities are supporting 105 unaccompanied children seeking sanctuary, including a small number that have been resettled via the Dubs amendment. But we have called on the UK Government—. We've objected to the fact that the UK Government closed the Dubs scheme in 2017 because we know that legal routes to safety are crucial for these children and we'd like to do more. Again, it goes back to the UK Government to provide us with the funding for local authorities, because they also would like to do more in terms of ensuring those placements and support.
And we have a guardianship scheme, which is developing. That's a new development, which, of course, again, we're supporting across Wales for unaccompanied children. The sanctuary website will be launched early this year. It's a new site. It's separate from the Welsh Government website. It's English and Welsh, but we will have text-to-speech software in terms of accessibility in many different languages. This is a really important point. Sanctuary is an online resource to support refugees and asylum seekers.
When I met with the Chair of the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee, John Griffiths, he challenged me, he said, 'You can say all these things, and you can agree that you'll support recommendations, but you've actually got to deliver on them.' I think he's going to be asking me that now. It's absolutely clear what we're up against, but we have to recognise this, as you say, as an opportunity and recognise the assets and the gifts that we have from those we welcome into Wales, which must truly be a nation of sanctuary.