The Status of EU Foreign Nationals

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Brexit Minister (in respect of his Brexit Minister responsibilities) – in the Senedd at 2:48 pm on 4 December 2019.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 2:48, 4 December 2019

Thank you. This week, I spoke to a family—one of them is Welsh, the other is Polish—both of them are working in the national health service as well as looking after two small children. They're worried that they could be split up if Brexit happens, obviously bearing in mind what had happened with the Windrush residents. I understand why they are so anxious about this, and they're not the only constituents who have such concerns.

I appreciate that the Welsh Government has got some good information online about how people should be applying for settled status, including a video taking people through the process, which is obviously very useful. But how do we ensure that all EU citizens are able and are aware of ensuring that they know how to apply for the settled status and are supported to ensure that they get it? Because I have other constituents whose literacy levels are not very good. They are not necessarily working, but they may have lived here for a very, very long time, and to send them back to some country that they might have been born in seems unbelievably inappropriate. So, I just wondered what conversations you've had, or what assurances you've had, from this outgoing Conservative Government that we won't see happening to European citizens what happened to Windrush victims, who were turfed out of this country and sent abroad, never to see their children or grandchildren again because they were too poor to come back?