Ukraine — House of Lords, 2022-03-02
Topic: Immigration
Frederick Ponsonby (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, the Minister got a rough ride on Monday when he answered a PNQ on visa restrictions for Ukrainian refugees. The whole House was frustrated by the Government’s response. Since then—yesterday—we have had the Home Secretary’s Statement in the other place, and there was moving applause for the Ukrainian ambassador at Prime Minister’s Questions today Today, the Ukrainian people face horrors of a potential scale that we have not seen in Europe since the Second World War. The whole of Parliament wants the Government to ensure that we play our historic role as a welcoming country for refugees and play our part in providing support for the Ukrainian people in their hour of need. I want to repeat many of the questions that my right honourable friend Yvette Cooper asked yesterday to better understand the answers. In saying that, I freely acknowledge that this is a rapidly evolving situation First, in the past few days, there has been some confusion over which family members can join UK nationals and those settled in the UK. We welcome that the Government have listened and extended the types of family members who are able to join loved ones safely in the UK. I have read estimates of between 100,000 and 200,000 family members. Can the Minister comment on that? Can he also confirm that, whatever the number is, it is not capped Secondly, many people, mainly women and children, are fleeing today’s terror. They will want to stay close to home, in neighbouring states—a point repeatedly made by the Minister on Monday. What will be done to support these front-line states? We may not be in the EU any more but we are in the Council of Europe, and these countries are our friends, with the same values as us. We should do everything we can to support refugees in front-line states Thirdly, the Government have said that the family reunion scheme will be free, but there are reports that some people are being charged to access visas to join family here. Can the Minister guarantee that people can now access the family reunion scheme for free? Further, does the sponsoring family member have to be a British national or have indefinite leave to remain? What about Ukrainians who are here on work or study visas, or those who come here as lorry drivers or on visitor visas Fourthly, have the Government considered an emergency humanitarian or protection visa that could still include all the significant security and biometric checks the Home Secretary has talked about but could be done swiftly and go broader than family members Fifthly, the humanitarian sponsorship pathway announced in the Statement is a community sponsorship scheme. We welcome this, but the existing community sponsorship scheme takes a long time. What will the Secretary of State do to ensure that the scheme can work quickly? How many people do the Government hope to help in this way, and when can we expect the first Ukrainian refugees to arrive under this scheme? The Government’s Statement does not include a resettlement scheme. What plans are there to go further and provide a resettlement scheme in addition to the community sponsorship I understand that this is a fast-moving and desperate situation. I ask that the House gets regular updates; I am sure that it will. As I said in opening, the Minister got a hard time on Monday. I hope that in this short debate we can focus on the practical things the Government are going to do to ameliorate the situation of our friends and comrades in Ukraine in their hour of need.