Meeting of the Parliament 08 September 2016
I thank Gillian Martin for that intervention and turn to the point about which she asks.
The motion rightly mentions the humanitarian issue of unaccompanied children. Graham Simpson will speak to that point later in the debate, but I will write into the record the UK Government action to date.
By legislating through the Immigration Act 2016, the UK has made crystal clear its commitment to bringing vulnerable children from Europe to the UK. Since royal assent, more than 30 children have been accepted and the majority have now arrived. The Home Office remains in discussions with the UNHCR, Save the Children and the Italian, Greek and French Governments to develop a scheme so that it can identify and resettle all such children as quickly as possible. It is not a simple task, and if the purpose of the motion is to urge it on with all endeavour, that is all well and good.
However, we should also note that that commitment is in addition to supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who arrive from Europe—over 3,000 last year—and in addition to those family members, including children, who are given visas to join refugees who have been granted asylum in the UK, of which there have been some 22,000 over the past five years.
In addition, there is a commitment for a further 3,000 vulnerable children and family members to be resettled direct from the middle east and north Africa, and the Department for International Development has created a £10 million refugee children fund to support the needs of vulnerable refugee and migrant children specifically in Europe. I do not think that it is enough simply to use the lazy language of criticism. Both the UK and Scottish Governments understand the scale of the task and are committed to doing all that we can—and to taking a fair share of the task, at that.
All that is complex, extensive and necessary, but so too is on-going engagement with the crisis at source in Syria. Working with a 67-member global coalition, the UK continues to play a leading role—our foreign and defence secretaries attended the summit in Washington in July to set the direction for progress through to 2017. In Iraq and Syria, Daesh is losing territory, its finances have been targeted and depleted, and its leadership is being killed. Desertions have increased and that all-too-depressing flow of foreign fighters and misguided followers, some far too close to us here at home, has fallen by 90 per cent. Thousands have been liberated from Daesh rule and many have now been able to return to their homes. It is a long haul, but we have to join our partners in keeping at it.
I commend the work of the Scottish Government and ministers. As I said earlier, Scotland has a long tradition of accepting refugees. The challenge, more so than ever before, is to ensure that the “new Scots” integration succeeds. I will listen with care to the arguments that have been made by Scottish Labour to put that on a statutory footing, but I am not persuaded that that is the best way forward or, indeed, urgent enough, given that the need is immediate.
One day, many years from now, a successful Scot—many perhaps—will emerge into full public view whose story will have started as one of the children who are arriving now, just as has been the case with those who arrived in all the examples, and many more besides, that I highlighted at the start of my speech. We are a welcoming people; those who arrive here feel that welcome, they prosper and they become Scottish role models themselves. Our duty is to make that possible. It is a challenge to which Scotland, the UK and others across Europe must rise and constantly strive to exceed.
I move amendment S5M-01322.1, to leave out from “UK Government” to end and insert:
“Scottish and UK Governments to do more, particularly to progress the transfer of unaccompanied child refugees under the Immigration Act 2016, and to coordinate with international partners, including Scotland's EU neighbours, to improve the situation of refugees in Europe, and celebrates and encourages the warmth of welcome and strong solidarity with refugees that has been demonstrated across Scotland as has been the case in many conflicts over many generations, with refugees seeking safety and security in the face of violence and persecution.”
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