Emergency Question: The Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 1:37 pm on 1 March 2022.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:37, 1 March 2022

Llywydd, my predecessor, Carwyn Jones, used to say often when he was First Minister that you don't have to go back very far in the histories of any one of us here in Wales to find that we'd arrived in Wales from some other part of the globe, and, in that sense, our connections with one another and, through that, with people elsewhere in the world are enduring and strong. I thank the Member for what he said on that.

Tomorrow, my colleagues Jane Hutt and Rebecca Evans will meet with the Welsh Local Government Association, the Wales Council for Voluntary Action and other third sector organisations to make sure that we are working together, planning together, pooling our resources to do everything we can to be in the best position possible to offer help and sanctuary to those people who may come to this country, maybe temporarily as they will hope, in order to re-establish their lives before they are able to return to the homeland from which they have been forced to flee. The Welsh Government will take a lead in that, in bringing people round that table together, and then we'll do whatever we can to support the efforts that others will want to make as well, because, as I think the question implied, this will be an effort that reaches far beyond Government and deep into civil society here in Wales.