We now move on to item 3, a statement by the Minister for Social Justice: Refugee Week 2022: Healing. I call on the Minister for Social Justice, Jane Hutt. 

Thank you. This week we mark Refugee Week. This is an opportunity to celebrate the wonderful contributions sanctuary seekers bring to Wales. The celebrations will bring together people from all backgrounds to help create better understanding between communities and promote integration.

Since we celebrated Refugee Week last year, the plight of those who are forced to leave their country to flee war or persecution has been highlighted more than ever, with the evacuation of Afghanistan and war in Ukraine to name just two of many world events affecting so many people. I've delivered several statements in relation to our support for people from Ukraine recently, and will continue to do so. However, I want to focus on our broader support for our sanctuary seekers today. 

We are privileged to offer sanctuary to those who arrive in Wales, to take a compassionate approach to integration, understanding the trauma they have faced. Wales has enjoyed a long history of welcoming refugees, and we continue to value and benefit from their skills, entrepreneurial spirit and the sharing of their cultures. In this Refugee Week we reiterate our ambition to make Wales a nation of sanctuary. I've been truly heartened to see how this has come to life over the past three years, since I launched our nation of sanctuary plan in January 2019—a plan that does not belong solely to the Welsh Government, but to all the people and institutions who make up our country and want to give what they can for a humanitarian purpose. We have seen this through an inspiring response to the COVID pandemic, the evacuation of Afghanistan and recently the Ukraine war: members of the public, local authorities, charities, faith leaders and organisations across Wales coming forward to support those who need help. This kindness embodies what we mean by being a nation of sanctuary.

Our unique approach in Wales, often referred to as 'team Wales' has led to many innovative ways of working. I am particularly grateful to Urdd Gobaith Cymru for genuinely embodying their long humanitarian response and purpose by stepping up and offering temporary accommodation to those desperately in need, first from Afghanistan and now from Ukraine. I have visited two of our welcome centres for Ukrainian refugees, including the Urdd yesterday, with the First Minister, witnessing the warm welcome they provide for Ukrainian refugees and the wraparound support with the local authority, health board staff and volunteers. Many families will remember their stay with the Urdd, and many have gone on to learn Welsh as part of their resettlement journey. The Urdd are, therefore, deserved winners of the First Minister’s special award at this year’s St David’s awards.

Once again, a fitting theme has been chosen for this year’s Refugee Week: healing. Whilst every sanctuary seeker will have their own personal story, all would share a common goal of surviving and the courage to rebuild their lives. And we know that part of the healing process for many is about restarting their lives and integrating with their community. We want this to start from day one of their arrival. The nation of sanctuary plan sets out the actions we are undertaking to ensure inequalities experienced by these communities are reduced, access to opportunities increased, and relations between these communities and wider society improved.

Our successful ReStart project, which ended on 31 March 2022, delivered support to 853 refugees over the three years. We have continued to fund ESOL hubs in Wales to ensure sanctuary seekers and refugees can access classes in Wales to improve and enhance their language skills. We are working to encourage businesses to consider recruiting refugees to make their workplaces inclusive of their needs.

Schools are starting to achieve schools of sanctuary status, providing a welcoming place of safety for all, making children feel part of the school's community, helping with the healing process. In March, I was delighted to join St Cyres School in Penarth, to present their award in becoming a school of sanctuary.

We have continued to provide funding to the Welsh Refugee Council and its partners to deliver our Wales sanctuary service and move-on services. We've also funded Asylum Justice to continue to provide legal advice and Housing Justice Cymru to expand hosting capacity across Wales. We've provided free access to internet at all asylum accommodation across Wales throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and continue to do so, which has meant people have been able to connect with their family members, keep studying, and continue to access vital health information and updates. We provided free transport to refugees to allow them to integrate with Welsh communities, and we are currently reviewing the next stage of those schemes.  

Every individual action—some of which I have outlined in this statement—brings us closer to becoming a nation of sanctuary and reaffirms the welcoming and caring reputation of our country. We stand with refugees from across the world, regardless of how they arrived. The UK Government policy to send people to Rwanda and the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 will be detrimental to the healing process and divisive. It is our moral duty to enable people to seek safety and find an inclusive welcome here in Wales.

Focus should be on improving the asylum system, not finding new ways to make the system more challenging and prolonged for people seeking safety. The decision by the Home Office to use electronic tagging is abhorrent and completely against our position as a nation of sanctuary. Those vulnerable people who come to our country seeking safety and sanctuary should be treated with dignity and respect, not tagged and criminalised. Safe and legal routes must be developed for asylum seekers to claim asylum from outside the UK, negating the need for perilous journeys and disrupting the business model of people smugglers.

Men, women and children arrive in the UK because of existing family or kinship ties, their ability to speak English, or as a consequence of cultural connections often linked to former British colonialism. We stand with refugees from across the world, regardless of how they have arrived. We celebrate how they enrich our communities in Wales, how their own healing journey turns to success, and how we benefit from this as a nation of sanctuary.

Thank you, Minister, for your statement today and I believe that everyone here is going to agree wholeheartedly with most of your sentiments. I would like to start by saying that recognising the plight of refugees is a fundamental part of our humanity and it is right for us to take action to help those fleeing conflict and persecution, and Refugee Week is a time for us to reflect on our own actions as to how we have helped those who have come in need and have asked for our help.

It is overwhelming to think that the number of forcibly displaced people around the world now stands at more than 100 million, and I would like to pay tribute to all those who work tirelessly to help refugees across the world. There are still so many who will be unknown to us who have given so much to help others. Refugee Week is a fantastic opportunity to bring communities together and encourage better understanding, and there is no better way than through art, culture and educational events to celebrate the contribution of refugees to the United Kingdom.

With this in mind, this year's theme of 'healing' is rather poignant. When we look at the Ukraine conflict, as with so many other conflicts, although the immediate concern is to get people to safety, we have to be aware of the long-term questions of how we deal with repairing and rebuilding the lives of refugees, and how we heal the impact of conflict without masking the suffering or forgetting the trauma. The process, ultimately, comes down to forgiveness, but this is much easier to say than to do, especially when so much pain, suffering and hurt has been caused.

We must be well aware that the healing process should not only extend to the psychological trauma of fleeing your country or being separated from family or losing loved ones, but also to the loss of community, to the potential loss of identity, and to the loss of home, and that all these issues affect people in different ways. We must also be mindful that the manifestation of many of these issues will be hidden. Depression, suicide, family breakdown, PTSD and health problems may well eclipse people's lives as they try to heal from their experiences.

Every nation in the world that deals with refugees faces similar problems, in that refugees rarely look for asylum in small numbers. Refugees are often fleeing for their lives in thousands and, as we have seen from the Ukraine and Russian conflict, in the millions. This creates problems with how responding countries deal with the overwhelming numbers. Whilst we are all horror struck at the plight of refugees, we need to be aware that Governments have the unenviable task to try and deal with refugees as best as they can, in light of the situation they're in, which is often extremely complex. And they have to do so objectively, which, unfortunately, often sees them accused of lacking empathy and emotion, but we have to be mindful that when the correct processes are in place, they achieve much more, and even though the systems may not always work at first, there is always an opportunity to evaluate, reflect and improve. And this, Minister, brings me to my first question.

In 2017, you wrote a letter to Kevin Foster, the Minister for Future Borders and Immigration, urging the UK Government to amend its legislation to provide a right for asylum seekers to work in any occupation in the UK if their application had taken more than six months after the full evidence had been submitted, and I would very much like to know if there is any update on asylum right to work. Secondly, I would like to know what intentions does the Welsh Government have to extend the free transport scheme, and do you have any plans to expand the scope of the scheme for asylum seekers? Thirdly, I wonder, Minister, given that voluntary jobs are one of the best ways to learn, understand and integrate into a new country, whether more voluntary opportunities for asylum seekers and refugees can be made available. And finally, Minister, would you be able to update us on the progress of the nation of sanctuary commitment to essential skills development and digital literacy? Thank you.

Diolch yn fawr, Joel James. And thank you for your support, in principle, for the statement, and for us being a nation of sanctuary. Thank you for acknowledging Refugee Week, and also, I'm sure, implicit in many of your comments, about the fact that for Refugee Week the theme is healing, and that is particularly important in terms of the trauma that so many refugees and asylum seekers are facing when they come and we welcome them to this country.

I think, in the past year, we were not anticipating, but we fully responded, as a country, in terms of the Afghan refugees and their arrival here, working on a Team Wales basis, which actually included some of the armed forces who had been involved in the ARAP scheme, where there were interpreters who they'd worked with, with those who are based in Wales, to ensure that we could provide the best possible support to Afghan refugees. We've welcomed approximately 700 people from Afghanistan and many of them, the majority of them, are now resettled across Wales. And also, now, of course, we are supporting our Ukrainian refugees as well.

What is important, and it goes to answer some of your questions, is that our vision is about making Wales not just welcoming to migrants, but harnessing the opportunities that migration brings to help our economy and communities to thrive. Actually, it's about a nation of sanctuary and being able to help those who are dispersed or resettled in Wales to make sure that they access those services and that they can integrate with communities from day one. And that means, of course, access to information on their rights and entitlements, including sections on health, education and employment, and much of that has been made available on our website. 

You ask about the asylum rights programme. The Welsh Refugee Council has recently been awarded funding for the Wales sanctuary service, which replaces the asylum rights programme, which is in place from 1 April 2022 for at least three years. I think that's important to demonstrate that we're moving forward, learning from the lessons of how we've funded the services up until that point, but ensuring that it is the Wales sanctuary service that is embedded in the work that they're doing.

In my statement, I did comment on the fact that we've taken forward our free transport scheme, and it is important to recognise that that's something that was a pilot, which is now being evaluated, which we're taking forward in terms of recognising that this has been very important for our refugees, particularly those coming from Ukraine, alongside all our refugees in Wales. I think that it is important, just in terms of evaluating the transport scheme, that we look at the pilot. The Welsh Refugee Council ran a pilot of free transport for asylum seekers from January to March. Surveys were undertaken with those who were using the pilot to understand the benefits and the impact of having free transport for asylum seekers, funding was identified and taken forward for further access to free transport, but also it was about making sure that we could look to our transport colleagues as well, because this is something that they have got to embed into their policies and their schemes. Initial feedback has concluded that access to free transport has helped asylum seekers to access opportunities that are not achievable in their weekly budget. And it's about access to visiting places of interest, healthcare appointments, ESOL classes, visiting friends—all of which are important in terms of integration and well-being.

I think that that also responds to your question about voluntary opportunities, because certainly, this is something, as the Wales sanctuary service and many of the organisations that are working across Wales, including local authorities and the third sector, are encouraging refugees and asylum seekers to volunteer. Going back to the very successful resettlement of Syrian families and refugees who came to Wales, and I recall even in my own constituency, the importance of the local authority offering voluntary opportunities to Syrian refugees who were there themselves, wanting to engage and offer that kind of support. And also, we've seen that very recently with many of the Ukrainian refugees who've come to Wales who, themselves, are wanting to contribute, obviously, and seeking to work and be independent, but also to volunteer as well. And we certainly found many who were offering to be volunteers, particularly with things like interpretation and translation, but also supporting each other, the children and families, in our welcome centres.

So, we're moving forward on all of the points that you've made, but recognising, which I hope you do, that this is against the context of a very challenging time when we need to ensure that our values as a nation of sanctuary, which I certainly share whenever I can with UK Government Ministers—that they're actually taken seriously and that the hostile environment is totally against, and those policies from the UK Government, I've mentioned, are totally against our nation of sanctuary spirit and delivery.

Thank you for the statement, Minister, to mark Refugee Week.

I'm looking forward to attending the Home Away From Home exhibition in the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea later this week, which is a celebration of the people and organisations who've been involved in making Swansea a city of sanctuary for over 10 years.

Getting to a safe place, of course, is only the first step—an often perilous and exhausting step—on a long journey for refugees, both literally and figuratively, which, as we've seen in recent weeks, is made even harder by Governments like those in power in Westminster, which dehumanise refugees, which devalue and deny human rights to those who've often experienced violence and persecution while on that journey towards sanctuary and normality, a journey that most of us can't even begin to imagine. After surviving that, after coping with that, then there is the incredibly difficult but key task of making a new life in a new country, the first step to healing, and being unable to do so is what too many refugees find frustratingly and impossibly challenging.

We have now seen how Wales has welcomed the chance to provide aid and sanctuary to those fleeing Ukraine and other nations, such as Afghanistan and Syria in the past. The response from ordinary people in Wales has been so heartening, but we heard from the Minister last week about some of the difficulties around other parts of the journey towards a new life. A few weeks ago, I asked you, Minister, about the provision of mental health support available to refugees arriving in Wales. Specifically, I wanted you to provide figures on waiting times and lists for those trying to access those support services, after it was revealed that, on a UK level, some refugees are waiting up to two years to access trauma support. I was therefore wondering if you could be able, today, to provide figures or estimates as to the situation on this in Wales. In your response also, you noted that the Welsh Government were exploring options to provide additional mental health and well-being support at the welcome centres, so I was wondering if any progress has been made with this and what the timescale will be on that.

I want to take this opportunity to put on record Plaid Cymru's thanks to the campaigners, organisations and human rights lawyers who succeeded in challenging and stopping the first flight due to take those seeking asylum from the UK to Rwanda under a despicable, immoral policy, which we know would've had devastating and dangerous consequences for those who are our brothers and sisters. Doctors Without Borders conducted mental health sessions with refugees and asylum seekers who'd been forcibly removed from Australia by way of a similar policy, to indefinite detention centres on Nauru island. Doctors Without Borders found some of the worst mental health suffering they had encountered in 50 years of experience of supporting refugees. Children as young as nine were having suicidal thoughts, committing acts of self-harm or even attempting suicide. If the Tory Westminster Government continues to play political games with the lives of those seeking our help and protection, we are putting these people at risk of a horrifying mental health collapse, like we saw in Australia.

The tagging pilot announced last week, which you've referenced, is equally shocking. The UN Refugee Agency has said that a clear majority of people arriving in the UK by small boat are refugees fleeing conflict or persecution and not, as the Westminster Government argues, in contrary to its own data, economic migrants. So, what is the Welsh Government doing to ensure that our aspiration to be a nation of sanctuary is achievable in the light of such barbarous policies? How is the Government going to ensure it's able to protect all people seeking safety equally in Wales?

Finally, I've been contacted by a constituent who is hosting a Ukrainian refugee. She has been trying for weeks to arrange an appointment at the nearest biometric residence permit centre in Cardiff, as is required to obtain leave to stay and access services beyond the first six months. She told me, 'As far as I'm aware, Cardiff is the only place in Wales where you can get a BRP, and, to date, it's impossible to get an appointment. The nearest centre offering appointments is Barnstable library, which, as the crow flies, and as the computer said, is approximately 50 miles away.' But, of course, in reality, it's closer to 150 miles and a six-hour round trip. My constituent also told me that there are no places available on an English for speakers of other languages course until September where she lives in Port Talbot for the Ukrainian woman she is hosting, which is also hampering her efforts to settle in her new home. So, what can the Welsh Government do to ensure people are able to access the visa appointments and support they need and that the stress of trying to make a new life for themselves is alleviated as much as possible? Diolch.

Diolch yn fawr, Sioned Williams. Swansea is a remarkable city of sanctuary. I remember visiting both universities and Gower College and the work that they've done. I think Julie James was involved as well, probably in her constituency capacity. It's absolutely thriving, and I'm sure that exhibition will be vivid and powerful. In fact, Joel James mentioned the ways in which during Refugee Week we often do celebrate the cultural and artistic contributions from our refugees, and we do that in recognition of their skill, talent and the cultural lessons and learning from that.

Your questions are key to how we can call ourselves a nation of sanctuary, aren't they? In terms of support, particularly for those, as you say, who've come here with perilous journeys and trauma—of course, yesterday, the First Minister and I met many at the Urdd welcome centre, and the Counsel General and I visited another welcome centre—and also leaving behind, for the Ukrainians, their husbands and partners who are fighting in the war, the journeys that they've taken, the new life in our country has to be powerful in terms of the support that we give. Actually, a strong word that was coming from many of the refugees yesterday was that they felt that the experience that they had at the Urdd was 'healing'. They didn't know that this was necessarily the word that has been the theme. They felt it was healing—the environment, the care and the compassion.

There has to be access to mental health support. In the welcome centres, in both the ones I visited, I met with nurses from the community mental health teams, and also in terms of other needs—health checks for those who are attending the welcome centres. There's no waiting when you go to a welcome centre, you see the teams. And, of course, they're registering with GPs. But the nurses were saying how privileged they felt to be able to offer this kind of support at this time. That's the expression of a nation of sanctuary by the professionals.

For those who are staying with sponsor families, I will look into this further in terms of access to mental health services, because clearly, in terms of the welcome that we're seeking to give—the health board, the local authorities—it's crucial that we can be held to account as to what it is that's been provided, but also give you reassurance on that. I certainly have found in my feedback that that access has been able to be delivered.

I'll just go on to some of the other points that you made about services once people come to Wales. Clearly, on the biometric centre and the fact that there was no chance of an appointment and there's only one in Cardiff, that is a UK Government responsibility. I will raise that with the Minister for Refugees, Lord Harrington. I meet with him and my Scottish colleague weekly or fortnightly, and I will raise this with them. But also, it's unacceptable that there's that delay, because those who are coming and are refugees want to work, they want to get on with their lives.

As far as ESOL classes are concerned—the education Minister has joined us as well—I know that universities, local authorities and the third sector are offering support, so I'll get an update on what's happening over the summer holidays. I'll certainly be doing another statement before the end of this term, I hope—if not oral, then written, an update—because ESOL is crucial for integration.

I want to finally thank you for your comments about the cruel, cruel policies that this UK Government is enacting to try to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, a cruel and inhumane response to those who seek sanctuary in the UK, and diametrically opposite to our nation of sanctuary approach here in Wales. The UN Refugee Agency is clear that the measures in the Nationality and Borders Act, the offshoring, are at odds with the refugee convention. The UK is a signatory to that. But also, again, there's the tagging as well. Numbers crossing the channel via small boats may be high recently, but the overall number of asylum seekers arriving in the UK is down on previous years, despite the rhetoric—and it is rhetoric—suggesting otherwise. Those who arrive here to seek sanctuary are seeking it because they're vulnerable, and they should be treated with dignity and respect, not treated like a criminal. I do welcome those statement and comments widely condemning this, including from the church. I was very pleased to read the statement from the Bishop of Llandaff, the Right Rev June Osborne. She said:

'Refugee Week offers us all, as schools, churches and communities, the perfect opportunity to come together and celebrate the incredible contribution these refugees and migrants make to our society, whilst also reflecting on the resilience of those who have experienced untold suffering.... This year has been impaired by new legislation that has criminalised many seeking safety, and just this week we’ve witnessed the first shameful attempt to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda', which, as the First Minister, of course, said, was a dark day. But we hope, as you say, those who have campaigned and enabled us to use their skills and legal support as well—. Of course, it's so important that this is part of our commitment to the European convention on human rights. 

John Griffiths. If I could have short questions and short answers, please, because we've got a long day ahead. Thank you.

Indeed. Thank you very much, Minister, for your statement and your work. I think Wales has made great strides in the way that we welcome asylum seekers and refugees here and look after them and provide the necessary services when they are in our country. It's very good to see, and I think the nation of sanctuary provides a very good framework and focus for that sort of work.

Minister, Newport East is diverse. I was very interested to bump into a young woman, a Ukrainian refugee, at a local parkrun in Newport. She was there with the woman that she is placed with, as it were, and they obviously got on very well and the household were enjoying Ukrainian potato pancakes, which apparently are very tasty. The young woman is a doctor and she's improving her English and very much looking forward to contributing within the Welsh national health service. It was a very positive picture indeed, and it was very good to see. I know we've seen similar positive stories around refugees from Afghanistan, for example. It's absolutely right that these people are having that level of service and welcome, but it's not the same for refugees and asylum seekers from all parts of the world and we have to make sure that it is consistently of that quality. In that respect, Minister, I'd very much echo the comments made about ESOL, because I think that is absolutely vital and we have to make sure that the provision is consistently good right across Wales.

I also think that around Refugee Week we can do more and perhaps we could have more of a campaign to get the right messages across in terms of asylum seekers and refugees, perhaps working with the local press and others, because there are lots of misconceptions, misinformation, and that undermines the sort of welcome that we want to see in our communities. Positive stories about the contributions that asylum seekers and refugees make can be very powerful and help shape perceptions in the right way, Minister, but I think it does need to be co-ordinated and led, and I think that is a role for Welsh Government. 

Thank you very much. I don't think I need to answer. They weren't questions; it was a very, very important statement. I think it just shows that the fact that I'm doing a statement here today on Welsh Refugee Week is important, and that, actually, we've had strong cross-party recognition of what it means to be a nation of sanctuary.

There's just one point that I would say. It's great that you had this refugee doctor from Ukraine in your constituency. I actually met a dentist who was also in a welcome centre in your area. They could work in our NHS, couldn't they, so they're already being put in touch with the organisation Displaced People in Action, who have supported refugee doctors over the last 22 years, because I helped set that up when I was health Minister all those years ago. So, many of those refugee doctors are now working in the NHS. But, for the contribution that refugees want to make, are desperate to make, often there are barriers. We've got to break down those barriers. We'll look at ESOL and the consistency of the offer across Wales. Sadly, in the funding that we're getting from the UK Government for the Ukrainian refugees, there is no funding for ESOL. There was for Afghan refugees; there's no funding for Ukrainian refugees. So, again, we're having to find that money.

Thank you.