8. What discussions has the Welsh Government had with the UK Government regarding its Rwanda asylum-seeker policy? OQ57977

Thank you, Joyce Watson, for that very important question. The UN refugee agency has been clear that the measures in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, including the offshoring of asylum processing, is at odds with the refugee convention, which the UK Government is a signatory to. The Rwanda plan is shocking, and I am making my views clear to the immigration Minister. 

Thank you for that update, Minister. The plan is, of course, morally abhorrent, for all the reasons that we discussed yesterday in the human rights debate, but it is gratuitously expensive. And given Britain's obligation under the UN refugee convention and the human rights laws, it looks unworkable anyway, as we have seen the legal challenges in recent days attest. The plan, quite frankly, is a mess. So, do you share my anger and frustration that the only guarantee of this deeply shameful Tory policy is that it will leave Welsh taxpayers out of pocket and refugees more vulnerable than they ever have been?

I do agree with those points, Joyce Watson. There's a charity that, yesterday—Care4Calais—actually branded the Rwanda deal as just another in a long line of deterrence policies announced by this Tory Government over the last few years. Care4Calais—I've got constituents who are involved in Care4Calais who've been to Calais on many occasions. Because they are there; they are working with people who are desperate, who've fled the horrors of the lives from which they've fled. And I was interested to see that the member for Calais from the French national assembly says, 'When you leave your country because of flood, because of starvation, because you're not afraid of being hauled and being sent back to another country, at least you have a chance, you will try.' It is absolutely shocking that our country, that the UK Government, is following this Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and this Rwanda plan. And let us hope that the legal challenge will stop it, and it, anyway, looks unworkable. But we have great concerns. We're one of the richest countries, Rwanda is one of the poorest countries, and I have written also to say that this is something that is totally against not just the refugee convention, but, of course, our morals and spirit and ethics as a nation of sanctuary.