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.