8. What support is available for refugees arriving in Wales? OQ57563

I thank Jane Dodds for the question. Our nation of sanctuary plan sets out the support that refugees arriving in Wales can expect to receive. This includes the advice and services needed to reduce inequality, prevent destitution, aid integration and help people seeking sanctuary to create a better future for themselves and for Wales.

Diolch, Prif Weinidog. On Valentine's Day this month, we are being asked to have a heart for refugees in a show of love, friendship and solidarity with people who have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety. It stands in stark contrast to the UK Government's approach in the Nationality and Borders Bill, and I know that our approach here in Wales stands again in stark contrast to that of Westminster's. First Minister, since 2010, more than 850 asylum-seeking and trafficked children and young people have been supported by the Scottish Guardianship Service. It's a service run by the children's charity Aberlour in partnership with the Scottish Refugee Council. The scheme is unique across the UK in offering continual one-to-one support in everything from navigating the gruelling bureaucracy of the asylum system to settling into their new communities. I wonder, First Minister, if this is something we could consider replicating here in Wales to ensure that no child or young person has to deal with the indignity and cruelty this Conservative Government seems hellbent on baking into our asylum system. Diolch.

I thank Jane Dodds, Llywydd.

There is an independent child trafficking guardian service in Wales, and many young, unaccompanied asylum seekers will meet the definition of being trafficked to the UK and therefore will be within the scope of this service, and it is similar, but not identical, I can see that, to the Scottish Guardianship Service. I'm very happy to look at whether there are aspects of the Scottish system that might usefully be replicated here in Wales. The general point that Jane Dodds began with, Llywydd, is a very important one: the impending tragedy of the Nationality and Borders Bill. Because that's what it will be for so many people who are recognised as having fled a well-founded fear of persecution and who will now find that Bill adversely impacting on the delivery of integration support in Wales, exacerbating destitution, increasing exploitation of migrants and illegal working in our communities, and those people who are already vulnerable will find their vulnerability increasing even further.

And we will see the visible signs of it here in Wales, we fear, in increases in homelessness, in impacts on public health, as people without recourse to public funds are likely to be fearful of coming forward for healthcare. Llywydd, there will be an LCM in front of the Senedd later this month particularly in relation to clauses 48 to 56 of the Bill, which we believe will restrict the ability of the Senedd to carry out our devolved responsibilities in relation to the youngest asylum seekers. The Welsh Government will be proposing to the Senedd that we withhold consent from those clauses, because they simply do not reflect the values and the beliefs that this Senedd, through our nation of sanctuary programme, has led the world in in many ways in making sure that we say that people who need help, and who need help by coming to Wales, will find us a welcoming nation, understanding of the traumas that they have experienced and determined to do what we can to help them set their lives on a new path, and, by doing that, to make their contribution to Wales.

I thank the First Minister.