Meeting of the Parliament 08 September 2016
Yesterday was the first anniversary of the UK Government’s commitment to resettle 20,000 of the most vulnerable victims of the Syrian conflict by 2020. Through working with the devolved Administrations and councils, those 20,000 places under the vulnerable person resettlement scheme have been secured four years early. Around half of them are children.
This week, £10 million has also been pledged for language tuition to help refugees integrate, as Rachael Hamilton said. I am pleased about today’s announcement from Angela Constance of £86,000 for Scotland.
That is all a cause for celebration and should unite this chamber. After all, the 1,000 refugees in or on the way to Scotland under the programme have been warmly welcomed, and it is entirely right to praise all those who have been involved in making the resettlement programme such a success, as Angela Constance has rightly done. It is incumbent on us all to ensure that that continues and that we work together to that end. Angela Constance’s motion started off in a positive vein, but it was wrong to single out the UK Government to do more—we should all be doing more. Her speech was consensual, and I commend her for it.
To provide the most effective aid to the greatest number of people, we need to ensure that the majority of refugees are safe and secure in their home regions. The debate is often focused on the refugees who are coming to Europe, but the vast majority—almost 5 million Syrians—are displaced across the middle east. I commend the UK Government for doubling aid to £2.3 billion to support the people living in Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and Lebanon, as Jackson Carlaw said.
Commitments made at the supporting Syria and the region conference, co-hosted by the UK, will also see, by the end of 2016-17 school year, 1.7 million refugees and vulnerable children in quality education, with equal access for girls and boys. That should be commended.
We have lodged an amendment to the motion because singling out the UK Government to do more is wrong. Scottish councils have expressed concerns about the high level of hotel-type accommodation that is being used as housing for asylum seekers. It is costly and also denies asylum seekers a sense of permanence. We should be helping to integrate them into communities, not putting them up in bed and breakfasts.
The UK Government hopes to extend the asylum seeker dispersal programme to more councils. At the moment, Glasgow is the only Scottish council taking part, which is a shame. We should be looking to extend that. The Home Office has also asked councils in Scotland to take part voluntarily in the national transfer scheme of unaccompanied asylum seeker children. The Home Office wants to accelerate that scheme.
I am sure that the Scottish Government would agree that it has an obligation to work with councils to ease any sticking points that exist, and I get the impression that Angela Constance is doing that. Our amendment calls on all Governments to do more.
We should not politicise the issue. We should be mature enough not to point score—a point that was seemingly lost on Ross Greer.
The UK Government has taken unprecedented action over the crisis and given record-breaking levels of financial aid, some of which has been administered by the Department for International Development, in my home town of East Kilbride. It is too easy to say that this or that Government should do more, but creating division is not the way to act.