4. Statement by the Minister for Social Justice: Update on Ukraine

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:23 pm on 3 May 2022.

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Photo of Jane Hutt Jane Hutt Labour 3:23, 3 May 2022

Thank you very much, Mark. I think it's important that the weekly figures that are given on a Thursday—in fact, I quoted 27 April—are figures that are shared on a four-nation basis. So, as I said in my statement, I can again confirm that 2,300 visas have been issued to people via the Homes for Ukraine scheme, those people who have got matched arrangements, family sponsorship, and have a sponsor in Wales. But, 670 of those, of the 2,300, are actually coming via the Welsh Government supersponsor route, and will come to our welcome centres. So, those are the key facts for 27 April, and obviously we'll be publishing the facts, the statistics, on Thursday for an update.

When we meet—and we've met, actually, every week, the Minister for Refugees, Lord Harrington, Neil Gray and myself—there are three issues we've talked about, and we've talked about them for two weeks running: delays—it's crucial, your point about the delay, because if these visas have been issued, why haven't we seen more arrivals—and we also looked at safeguarding, and funding as well. So, as far as the delays are concerned, there has been widespread frustration that the Minister for Refugees himself recognised, waiting for not just the—. I did mention the fact that there have been frustrations particularly where the whole family hasn't received a visa, and I think this is still the case. I think we've seen and heard in the media, and the Welsh media, examples of this happening at the moment, where there are pending applications relating to Ukrainians and not to all of the family.

As things stand, as I've said, we press the UK Government to improve processes and have less bureaucracy. The Minister for Refugees, Richard Harrington, went to Poland a couple of weeks ago, and he said there were some who have now got their visas, and they're now considering their arrangements in terms of coming to Britain, to Wales, to the UK. I have to say that there are also some who are considering whether they do want to come because of the delays and the bureaucracy. I think you've seen those reports in the press as well, which is very concerning because we should have been able to respond as quickly as those countries in the EU have been able to respond. So, we know that there are delays because of bureaucracy, because of the processes, but we were assured last Thursday by the lead official in the Home Office that they were getting more caseworkers and speeding up the process. 

Safeguarding is crucial; it's a four-nation issue. We've been working together, we've been sharing examples, again, of where this has failed in terms of people going through more informal matching—perhaps arrangements breaking down in terms of the Homes for Ukraine scheme, and then going on to informal matching processes that are not safe and secure. We've had examples of what that has meant in terms of putting particularly women at risk, and that is all taken on board. So, we have got the Disclosure and Barring Service checks, working with the local authorities. We have a letter, actually; we've written to local and regional partners about DBS checks, and I can share that with you, for the chief executives and statutory partners in terms of DBS, and that relates to the health service as well.

Working with local authorities, we're working at senior officer level, and chief executives are meeting regularly as well. Of course, the issues that you raise in terms of safeguarding, anti-human trafficking and recognising that this is something where all of those links, like the link that you're aware of and engaging with in north Wales—. They're very important to share with us to ensure that we can avert people, and give that information more formally in terms of our guidance. It's crucial in terms of education that children can obtain admission to schools, and, indeed, also, I have to say, to the health service, to their GPs, to the health checks that are under way. This is monitored on a daily basis.