I ask members and guests of the Parliament in the gallery who are leaving the chamber after First Minister’s question time to do so quietly. The Parliament is still in session.
The next item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-14081, in the name of James Dornan, on taking action to protect asylum seekers and refugees across Europe. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament recognises the work of charities and organisations across Scotland, including the Greater Pollok Integration Network and Glasgow the Caring City based in the Glasgow Cathcart constituency that have supported asylum seekers and refugees in Glasgow for many years; notes the continuing forced displacement and refugee crisis with people seeking asylum or refuge from places including Syria, Libya and Eritrea arriving daily in Europe; appreciates that the numbers of people reaching Europe is dwarfed by people seeking refuge in neighbouring countries including Jordan; notes the deaths of at least 70 asylum seekers in the back of a truck close to the Austrian border; notes the comments of the Austrian interior minister, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, who said that “the tragedy again underlined the urgent need for common EU policies to protect migrants and to combat people traffickers”; considers the European response to date to have been lacklustre and the position of the UK Government to continue to stand on the sidelines to be senseless and untenable; believes it imperative that countries across Europe come together and put in place a European strategy to deal with the crisis both with people coming via the Mediterranean and those waiting in Calais; notes recent comments by Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande looking to discuss such a strategy at the next meeting of the European Commission in October 2015, and further notes calls on the UK Government to join them in opting-in to the EU resettlement programme and taking other positive steps to assist across the continent and to stop playing politics with the lives of so many people seeking refuge from unimaginable hardship in their home countries.
12:33
I wanted to start by welcoming Ross Galbraith from Glasgow the Caring City to the Parliament, but I have a feeling that he is stuck outside the chamber, waiting for people to leave. I know that he is in the building. I also put on record my thanks to Graham O’Neill and the team at the Scottish Refugee Council for preparing a briefing and for all their assistance with this debate. Of course, I also thank all the members who signed my motion and those who will participate in the debate.
I wrote the motion some time ago after hearing about the deaths of 70 asylum seekers in the back of a truck, close to the Austrian border. The event hit me hard. I was sure that that horrific incident would be the straw that broke the camel’s back. I was sure that a tragedy on such a scale would force the hands of Europe’s Governments, which would start to work together constructively to offer refuge and asylum to people who are fleeing the unimaginable hardship of war in their countries. I was delighted to hear on Tuesday that the main suspect in that horrible incident was to be extradited from Bulgaria.
The involvement of people traffickers in those deaths, as well as countless others, was another thing that I believed would jolt the European Union into action, and I put the remarks by Austrian interior minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner into the motion to endorse the idea that we must have a plan to deal with the human smuggling and trafficking that happen wherever there is human misery. Just imagine that your life is so horrible—so full of fear and hopelessness—that you put yourself and your family in the hands of those dealers in death. Coincidentally, part of this afternoon’s business is stage 3 proceedings on the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Bill, which is very timely indeed.
However, the tragedy did not turn the tide in the way that I hoped it would when I wrote the motion—that came a few days later, with the heartbreaking and tragic image of wee Alan Kurdi on the beach. I will take some time to get over seeing that image, and I suspect that many others will too.
The public response to that image was overwhelming, from the donations that poured in from all parts of Scotland, to the vigils, fundraisers and forming of groups such as Scotland supporting refugees, and the Scottish Government and Scottish Refugee Council website, Scotland welcomes refugees. The reaction from the Scottish public, the third sector, local organisations and most politicians has been swift and unequivocal: Scotland welcomes refugees, and we will do all that we can to make them feel welcome, to support them and to assist them become part of our communities.
I congratulate James Dornan on his members’ business debate. In the House of Commons, I tabled a motion that was similar at its heart to his motion: it said that, as a country, we had to accept a joint responsibility for refugees arriving in Europe and help those in the camps in the middle east. Although the motion got substantial cross-party support in the House of Commons, it was defeated by the Government.
Does James Dornan agree with me that if his motion, which is the same at its heart as the motion that was tabled in the House of Commons, was able to be voted on in this Parliament, it would carry by a substantial majority?
It will come as no surprise to anybody that I agree with every word that Mr Salmond said—it is a habit that I have got into over a number of years. If members listen to my speech, they will hear me come on to say pretty much exactly what Mr Salmond said.
In my own constituency of Cathcart, the work of Glasgow the Caring City has been nothing short of awe inspiring. A few weeks ago, I was contacted by the Rev Neil Galbraith and Ross Galbraith to discuss and see how I could assist them with a shipment of donations that they were putting together to go to the Balkans to support the refugees who at that stage were attempting to enter the EU through Hungary.
I immediately contacted Martin Armstrong, the chief executive of the Wheatley Housing Group, to see whether he would be able to offer any assistance. I was delighted when he said that the group would give a cash donation to help with shipping costs and put a call out to its 2,500 staff, asking them to donate clothing for the refugees. Four days after the call went out, Ross and I went to pick up the aid donated by the staff. I was stunned that in that short period of time they had donated 2 tonnes of clothes. Huge thanks are due to all those wonderful people who gave so generously.
Yet another example of Glasgow’s huge heart occurred on that visit. We were loading the van when an elderly gentleman passed us. He stopped to ask what we were doing, and when it was explained to him, he walked on—and then turned around and offered us £20. I do not mean any disrespect—the exact opposite—but I doubt that he could easily afford to give that money, yet he would not be dissuaded. He wanted to do his bit. Scotland’s response to the tragedy has been full of such stories. The Rev Neil Galbraith told me of a young boy in his congregation who donated a red hoodie. In its pocket was a letter that the young boy had written for the recipient of the hoodie. That letter and the hoodie are heading to the Balkans, and the recipient will see that, in Glasgow, there is a wee boy who wants to help.
Earlier this week, I was pleased to join the Minister for Europe and International Development, Humza Yousaf, on a visit to see the great work that the volunteers of Glasgow the Caring City are doing. Their hard work and dedication have ensured that more than 70 tonnes of clothes and soap are ready to go to the refugees. That shipment will be sent to the Balkans early next week. I am excited to say that I will be in Serbia towards the end of next week to meet the mayor of Novi Sad and see for myself the difference that Scots’ generosity will make to refugees fleeing the horrors of their homeland.
Of course, the work done by charities across Scotland to help refugees where they are stranded across Europe and further afield is only part of all this. We have to be prepared to help when refugees get here. I have been struck by the number of people who have popped into my office offering to help refugees when they arrive. One couple have a spare room that they can offer; and a woman who teaches English as a foreign language wanted to volunteer her time. That is why I am so supportive of the Scotland welcomes refugees website. We need one go-to place for people both offering and requiring support. The website www.scotlandwelcomesrefugees.scot is that place.
This is not a motion for attacking the UK Government, but I would be derelict in my duties if I did not take the opportunity to urge it to rethink its policy on the crisis. Although I welcome the money that it is spending and its commitment to take in refugees—even if it is a miserly 20,000 over five years—its response so far is completely out of step, certainly with what we are seeing in Scotland and in many parts of Europe.
There is a further meeting of the European Commission in the coming weeks. The time has long come for the UK to step up to the plate and offer meaningful long-term assistance. In Scotland, we have the room, the resources and the political and public will to help. I hope that, following that meeting, a broader European strategy can be found that allows us to do even more than we are able to do just now.
Periodically, there is a tragedy that plucks the public’s heart-strings more than others do. That may be because it involves children, because of a horrible photo or video, because of its longevity and hopelessness, or simply because of the pure scale of the horror. The crisis that we are discussing has all those things.
The long-term aim must be to make the middle east a safer place, to allow people to return to their homes in safety. Despite right-wing propagandists’ claims, that is what most refugees want to do. Until then, we as a Parliament, as a Government and as people have to step up to the plate to help in every way that we can to make life that little bit easier to bear. So far, Scotland has done that and more.
I again thank all the members who signed my motion and those who are taking part in the debate. I thank the Scottish Parliament for giving me the opportunity to raise the issue and the Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Europe and External Affairs for being here to respond to the debate. I hope that, just by having this debate, we will help to keep the plight of the refugees full square in the public glare.
12:41
I congratulate James Dornan on bringing this most important issue to the chamber, and I welcome the opportunity to recognise the many great charities that work across Scotland to welcome and support refugees and asylum seekers. People who arrive on our shores are fleeing unimaginable hardship and conflict, and humanity calls on us to see them not as statistics, but as individuals—women, men and children—who have suffered much.
We see that humanity represented in the work of charities. I pay tribute to the many charities that are based in the Edinburgh Northern and Leith constituency that offer advice, teach English, enable training and generally help people to settle down in their new community. They include the Multi-Cultural Family Base, which is based in Leith; Saheliya, which is for black and minority ethnic women and girls; and the living in harmony group, which is in north Edinburgh. Those groups recognise that to come to a new country under any conditions is daunting, but to arrive in search of sanctuary from trauma requires extra help, emotional support, counselling, practical advice and, most often, quite simply a friendly face.
We all have a role to play in assisting with the crisis that refugees face in making the journey from Syria in particular. The Scottish Refugee Council provides a first response for all newly arrived refugees in Scotland, and it has put measures in place that allow the public to fundraise and donate. It provides links to a new online hub for people in Scotland to register their support and find out more about Scotland’s response to the refugee crisis. The scotlandwelcomesrefugees.scot website is fantastic. It includes details of how to donate, with links to all the charities that currently seek donations and details of how people may offer practical support. It allows people to log their details along with other expressions of support for future refugees, and there is a guide for how to host fundraising events.
There is such an appetite for getting involved, sparked by the realisation of the full extent of the crisis in the shocking scenes from traffickers’ boats and the beaches of Lesbos. The CalAid phenomenon, which has seen dozens of shipments of clothing and essentials transported to Calais, is testament to that appetite to help and effect a positive outcome for refugees.
In the debate in September, all parties—with the exception of the Conservative Party, I am afraid—called on the UK Government to do more and to increase the number of refugees who are allowed into the UK. It also called for Scotland to welcome far more than the initial 1,000, and for us to be allowed to offer a future with inclusive opportunities. The measures that are required need to reflect the extent of the crisis, and nothing short of an EU-wide strategy will suffice.
According to the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as of September 2015, more than 12.2 million Syrians living within the country’s borders need assistance, 7.6 million are internally displaced, and 4.1 million have been forced to flee abroad. Most have settled in overpopulated and underresourced refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. The scale of the crisis in those areas is unprecedented. With the harsh winter approaching, humanitarian organisations such as the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have already started to voice their concerns about resourcing.
The solution to the crisis cannot be met while party-political agendas are being pursued. A cross-party consensus in this country and a cross-border effort that takes a strategic approach across Europe are required.
Vital talks are coming up this month in which the UK must play an active part. We should be at the table, talking about how we will play our part in the global mission to ease the crisis of refugees who are fleeing war. The motion states that it would be “senseless and untenable” for the UK to continue to stand by on the sidelines, and I whole-heartedly agree. As a country whose repeated interventions in the region may have had some impact on its stability, we have a moral obligation to take on our full quota of refugees. It should be seen as our obligation as a member state, in solidarity with others in the EU who are under increasing pressure. We have the resources, infrastructure and willpower. What we require now is leadership.
12:45
I thank James Dornan for bringing to our attention again the refugee crisis, which is so important. I will use a word from another language to say thank you to James Dornan: shukran, which is an Arabic word. Why do I want to say shukran? We heard it last night on the BBC. I thank all the journalists who go across Europe to bring us the images and testimonies of what is happening in the movement of desperate refugees. I was struck by the fact that when a BBC journalist helped one of the refugees, they very politely answered, “Shukran.” We need to understand that refugees are people just like us. Before they left Syria, they were living just like us. It is reminiscent of what happened in world war two. Refugees are people just like us.
I thank the people of Scotland, too. James Dornan talked about the huge heart of people in Glasgow. We have a huge heart in the north-east, although maybe we are better at hiding it. Fantastic work is being done by groups such as Aberdeen solidarity with refugees. There is also the Dundee refugee support group, which was originally started to take donations to the Calais camp when we began to hear about the refugee crisis.
At the beginning of the year, I wrote to the French President to ask about collaboration between the French Government and the UK Government. There was an opportunity at that time to address the refugee crisis. Lorry drivers spoke to me—I used to work in the haulage industry—to say, “This is not what we usually see in Calais. This is different—something is happening.”
The response of the UK Government to the refugee crisis in Calais was an example of exactly what not to do. The UK Government’s bad example is maybe being followed by some European countries—we heard that last night on the BBC. The UK Government started it. It did not respond properly to the crisis. The erection of the fence was nothing short of a disgrace.
I will give members another testimony. A mother whom I spoke to in Aberdeen was pleased to tell me about the work of her daughter, who is helping in a refugee camp in Jordan. I told the mother to ask her daughter to write to me, if she wanted to give me her testimony of what is happening there. She wrote and told me a lot of things about the situation.
That brings me to the Scottish Government’s approach and the direction that it is taking, and particularly to what the First Minister said about it not being an either/or choice between helping refugees in the middle east or helping refugees across Europe. We need to do both—that is very important.
Christian Allard may be aware that on 22 September the EU agreed to take in 120,000 more refugees who are currently in countries such as Italy and Greece. The UK and Denmark absolved themselves of that responsibility. Does he agree that that was utterly wrong of the UK?
I agree with my colleague absolutely. The UK Government has given an example not to follow, as it did at the start of the crisis.
The young lady whom I talked about described a number of families and individuals in her correspondence to me. On behalf of all those people, she asked us to help. It is so important that we do so. She wrote to say that despite the fact that aid is being given out, including money from the UK Government, it is nowhere near enough. Many women whom she spoke to came through years ago. Some of them were pregnant at the time and now have children who were born in Jordan. She explained the people’s situation by saying:
“They are living in awful conditions with poor access to basic water and sanitation facilities, and don’t have enough to eat or afford rent, many of them are evicted and indeed are begging or selling themselves on the streets for money”.
That is what it is about. I thank James Dornan for securing the debate and I thank the people of Scotland for responding in the way that they have done.
12:50
I congratulate James Dornan on securing time for such an important debate. The refugee crisis—the worst that we have ever seen—which has been unravelling before our eyes has affected us all in one way or another and it is important that we debate what the right action is in order to protect those who are most vulnerable.
This morning, the European and External Relations Committee hosted a round-table session with experts to shed more light on the crisis and to suggest what Scotland can do to help.
I praise the many individuals, charities and local authorities in Scotland that are already working with asylum seekers and refugees to alleviate suffering or stand ready to do so when they arrive in this country. That includes local authorities in my region of the Highlands and Islands. Indeed, Morag Brown of Argyll and Bute Council attended the committee meeting this morning. We are a very civilised nation and I have no doubt that we will make the refugees welcome in our communities, as we have done in the past.
I am disappointed that the motion clearly seeks to shame the UK Government. I reject that notion completely for a very simple reason. Over the past months, the horrendous incidents and accidents with refugees being suffocated in the back of trucks or drowning in the Mediterranean have caught the eyes of the world, and rightly so. Many of those refugees find themselves in the claws of human traffickers. With the UK system of going to the camps surrounding Syria and giving asylum to those who are most vulnerable, we are not only undermining the human traffickers but making it harder for individuals with malicious intent to enter the UK.
We, the UK, are the world’s
“second-largest bilateral donor of aid to the Syrian conflict”
and Scotland is part of that. We have provided more than 18 million food rations and given 1.6 million people access to clean water. We are providing education to a quarter of a million children and we will increase that number.
The UK Government announced a further £100 million in aid last week, taking our total contribution to over £1 billion. That is the UK’s largest-ever response to a humanitarian crisis. I would not call it standing on the sidelines. We should be proud of that and proud of the fact that the UK is one of the only major countries in the world to honour its commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of its gross domestic product on foreign aid.
The UK is, in my opinion, lucky not to be a member of the Schengen agreement. The refugee crisis has showcased many of the weaknesses in the agreement and in the European response to the crisis. The principle of no internal borders relies on the enforcement of an outer border to ensure that Europe remains secure. That system has failed catastrophically and poses a significant security risk, and many questions, to EU citizens and refugees alike, as the gaps in the outer border will have been exploited by those who intend harm.
This refugee crisis is heartbreaking and upsetting—I know that we can all agree on that—but it is a direct consequence of the political situation and violent wars. Therefore we should all surely concur with the UK Government and the international community that we must adopt a comprehensive approach that tackles the causes of the problem as well as the consequences. The greatest contribution that the UK can make is to work to end the conflict altogether and we must continue to seek a peaceful settlement that enables a political transition and an end to violence. However hard that might be and however far away from that position we might be now, we have to go down that path. We must take a similar approach towards Libya and other states where political violence and turmoil are harming the people of those countries and driving this terrible refugee crisis.
12:54
Like others, I spoke in the debate on the refugee crisis that we had just two weeks ago, but unfortunately nothing has changed; people are still being washed up on shores. That is why I thank James Dornan so much for bringing this issue to the chamber again for discussion. I also very much thank the Rev Neil Galbraith and Glasgow the Caring City for their work, as well as many others whom I will go on to mention.
That said, I cannot let Jamie McGrigor’s speech pass without comment. As I said in the previous debate, these wars have been created by the west. Of course we want an end to the conflict, but we are morally and duty bound to protect and help these people. Mr McGrigor has talked about stopping the conflict, but we hear that the House of Commons is going to bomb Syria once again. He should look to his own party in Westminster with regard to what is happening in the unfortunate parts of the middle east.
Who are we to pick and choose who comes to our shores? I ask that question constantly. Are we saying that we will pick those in the refugee camps in Lebanon, Turkey and other areas, but not open our arms to the people who are languishing in Calais or in Lesbos and other parts of Greece? Who are we to say that we can pick and choose who can come to our country and whom we should help? I find that a pretty obnoxious thing to say.
I want to look at more positive aspects and to thank the many people throughout Scotland who have offered help. This week, I attended two events. On Monday, I was at the Yesbar for a comedy night organised by Suzanne McLaughlin and many others for refugees and Glasgow the Caring City, and we raised more than £2,000. It was absolutely fantastic and a great fun way to raise money for refugees.
On Tuesday night, I and nearly 400 members of the public attended a meeting that was organised by the Glasgow campaign to welcome refugees and many others, including the Scottish Trades Union Congress, at the Charles Wilson building in the University of Glasgow. At that meeting, we heard harrowing first-hand accounts from people whom I mentioned in the previous debate and who had actively helped in Lesbos and Athens. Those people, who included Margaret Woods, Pinar Aksu and others, provided accounts of what they had seen and showed us slides—it was very moving. They told us about watching two boats coming in and rushing to help; a baby was handed from the boats to one of the young girls who was helping Margaret and Pinar, but the baby was so cold that no one knew whether she would survive. Thankfully, she did, and we saw pictures of her being fed and so on. These were heart-warming stories of ordinary people going out of their way. The 400 people in that audience raised more than £1,000; that money is going straight to Greece to help people on the ground, and a truckload of clothes and, I believe, £500 are being sent to help with the situation in Calais.
That is the real story. These people are on the ground, seeing the suffering and wanting to help. They do not care where the refugees come from; they see them suffering and dying daily. I know that Greece has had its problems, but we heard evidence that people arriving on boats, starving and needing water, were being charged €2 for a bottle of water by some people. Capitalism lives. Obviously refugees should get that water for free.
I thank James Dornan once again for enabling us to talk about this issue. This is all about people on the ground wanting to help others.
12:59
I thank James Dornan for securing the time in the chamber to debate what has become Europe’s worst refugee crisis since the second world war. The whole country is moved by this on-going crisis. People are taking desperate measures to cross the Mediterranean from places such as Syria and Libya, and more than 2,700 lives have been lost so far this year in unsuccessful missions to reach Europe in order to seek asylum or refuge.
I am proud that residents in my region, Glasgow, are doing what they can to help. Glasgow has the largest population of asylum seekers outside London. Glasgow’s record on providing refuge is the result of the great work of charities and other organisations across the city and of Glasgow City Council.
As I mentioned in the debate that we had a couple of weeks ago, Glasgow City Council has provided homes to 55 Syrians who have fled the war in their home country. It has also agreed to take in more and outlined its belief that that is the right thing to do. I was delighted to see the success of the Glasgow sees Syria event in George Square, which included drop-off points for food donations from members of the public, and to hear the council’s leader, Frank McAveety, call on the Government to accept more refugees. The University of Glasgow is also to be congratulated on introducing a series of measures to support refugee students, including fee waivers and the extension of its talent scholarship scheme to support refugee undergraduate and postgraduate students.
However, we need to do more. We need to do more as UK citizens and as European citizens. The European Union was founded on the values of respect for human dignity and the protection of human rights. Therefore, we need to establish an agreement between the European member states and take more positive measures to tackle the crisis of people putting their lives at risk to get to Europe. We also need to address the plight of those who are suffering in Calais and those who are displaced in their own countries.
Earlier this week, the President of the European Council spoke at the UN General Assembly to give reassurance that Europe is as committed to its values and objectives now as it has ever been. Every one of us needs to ensure that we are committed to those values and objectives as members of the European Union.
However, the issue is a shared responsibility among all states, as no single country can solve a crisis of this scale. The responsibility to solve the crisis does not lie just with Europe. It is a global crisis that requires a global response. The international community must come together to provide a global response to the on-going refugee crisis, as we cannot turn our backs on people who are seeking refuge from war in their home countries.
13:03
I, too, congratulate my friend James Dornan on bringing the debate to Parliament. Like other members, I appreciate the heartfelt way in which he urged all of us, within and outwith the chamber, to take action to protect asylum seekers and refugees across Europe.
As others have highlighted, the debate recognises the fact that we are witnessing the largest mass movement of people since the second world war. According to the Scottish Refugee Council, 60 million women, children and men have been displaced as they flee persecution, conflict, war, violence and human rights violations. Half the 60 million displaced people are women and girls. Some 86 per cent of the world’s refugees are hosted by developing regions. Pakistan, Lebanon and Turkey alone host three in every 10 of the world’s refugees.
The debate allows us to highlight the widespread public concern across Scotland about the global humanitarian and refugee crisis. All of us have been touched and moved by the harrowing images that we have seen in our newspapers and on our television screens. The public’s generosity has been seen in myriad ways as people reach out to offer assistance. Only last week, I met the teachers and pupils of South Morningside primary school, in my constituency, who were so moved by the plight of refugees that they raised more than £1,000 in one week. I pay tribute to them for their outstanding efforts.
Another example of the outpouring of public concern has been the response of the churches and faith-based organisations to the humanitarian and refugee crisis. Pope Francis has called on every Catholic parish community in Europe to offer support to refugee families who are fleeing to our continent from the middle east. I was delighted to learn that those at St Columba’s parish church in Newington have said that they will welcome a refugee family into their community and want to do all that they can to help.
I take the opportunity to thank all the churches for the moral leadership that they have shown in demanding that Governments and people do all that they can to welcome refugees and asylum seekers to this country. Philip Tartaglia, the Archbishop of Glasgow and president of the Bishops Conference of Scotland, wrote to the First Minister on 10 September to say:
“In support of your response and inspired by Pope Francis, I write to offer the assistance of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland in any plans that may emerge in the months to come to support and assist the new arrivals to our country. Many of our parishioners hail from families with a history of fleeing conflict and poverty in the 19th and 20th centuries to find a new home in Scotland. In the subsequent decades we have established an effective network of parishes that exist to promote the Christian faith and thus contribute to the common good.”
However, the generosity of the public response to the humanitarian crisis has not been matched by the UK Government accepting an appropriate number of refugees from the refugee camps. The UK Government established the Syrian vulnerable persons relocation scheme to resettle vulnerable Syrian refugees across the UK but, to date, only 216 people have been resettled in the UK. For that reason, I agree with the Edinburgh Trade Union Council, which states:
“We consider that the UK Government’s response to the crisis is woefully inadequate.”
The UK Government must do much more to meet our obligations to the most vulnerable people on the planet.
The UK Government’s greatest failure has been its determination to stand aside from the European Union’s relocation scheme. If the European Union is committed to taking 160,000 refugees, should the UK not play its part in accepting its share of those refugees to our shores? The UK is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, whose actions have destabilised the middle east as a region, and the UK has a moral obligation to do much more than it is committed to doing.
Scotland, as a national community and as a society, stands ready—as we have always done—to open our doors and our hearts to welcome refugees into our country. Refugees and asylum seekers have enriched our society culturally, economically and socially over many decades. We look forward to playing a role, as part of a co-ordinated Europe-wide response, in responding to the crisis and in helping people to rebuild their lives. I look forward to welcoming those new Scots to our country and to their making a positive contribution to Scotland in the years ahead.
13:08
I thank James Dornan for lodging the motion for debate. The issue is not new, but the sheer scale, importance and impact of the crisis demand public and political responses locally, nationally and internationally.
As we have heard, the crisis has also generated very personal responses. I was struck by James Dornan’s remarks about the young boy in the red hoodie. That response has been felt across our constituencies and among our constituents. We heard from Christian Allard, Sandra White, James Eadie and Anne McTaggart about the personal contributions that people have been making in their communities. However, that is not to say that there is unanimity throughout the entire population about the moral imperative to act, which makes it all the more important that we continue to make the case for action.
The cabinet secretary will accept that Scotland has responded to the refugee crisis with remarkable heart and direction, because we want to do something. However, the point that she just made about the longer term is important, especially with regard to what integration measures will be available to raise awareness not just in the communities where the refugees will potentially be based, but throughout Scotland. Does she agree that we need to raise awareness among the people of Scotland of the sheer scale of the challenge that those people face?
That is a very important point. We are in this for the long term; we must all be prepared for that. The facts that more than 1,000 offers of help have been received by the www.scotlandwelcomesrefugees.scot website, and that all 32 of our local authorities have pledged their support to bring Syrian refugees to Scotland and to integrate them into our communities, are testament that Scotland stands willing and is able to step up to the plate to help—none more so than the organisations that are referred to in the motion.
My colleague Alex Neil, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Communities and Pensioners’ Rights, made clear in the debate on the refugee crisis on 15 September that the Scottish Government should be doing what we can to help people who have made their way, at enormous risk, to mainland Europe. The First Minister and the Minister for Europe and International Development reiterated that message when they met Philip Hammond, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, on 21 September. The Deputy First Minister delivered the same message in Brussels on the same day.
Although asylum remains reserved to the UK Government, the Scottish Government believes that asylum and refugee resettlement into the EU from third countries are areas that require multilateral and collective EU action. The EU must take collective responsibility and exert the leadership that Malcolm Chisholm called for. For my part, I have regularly raised the need for solidarity and support for the rescue of, and provision of refuge for, people from the southern borders of the Mediterranean since the Lampedusa tragedy many years ago.
The Scottish Government remains firmly committed to pressing the UK Government to sign up to measures that will protect vulnerable refugees from harm, and ease the burden on the countries that are most affected—in particular, by participating fully in proposed EU action, for example on relocation and resettlement.
As we have heard, the UK Government did not vote in the emergency EU Justice and Home Affairs Council on the crisis on 22 September, because it is continuing to refuse to opt in to the relocation scheme. It was initially not prepared to take more than a handful of Syrian refugees, so we know that it can change. However, political energy and effort should be spent on supporting the people who are in need, and should not be not soaked up by seeking to shift the UK Government’s intransigence.
I am not sure whether Jamie McGrigor meant to do this, but he seemed to indicate that the UK’s security self-interest was driving its response, and not sympathy, solidarity and support. That is of serious concern.
At the meeting on 22 September, EU members agreed to relocate 120,000 of the desperate people who have reached Europe. The Scottish Government believes that the UK should take a share of the group, as well as those from Syria. It is, of course, welcome that the UK Government has increased its aid to camps in the region to £1 billion, which makes it the second-largest donor there. We do not dispute that there is an urgent need to provide aid as well as to work internationally to resolve the circumstances that are driving the mass movement of humanity, but it is not an either/or situation—we can make sure that the region is supported and sign up to relocation in the EU. I think that that is what this Parliament wants. We do not agree that the UK is doing all that it can, and we will continue to press home that message.
There is much in the EU’s agenda that the Scottish Government can support, including its focus on taking action to save lives in the Mediterranean, the recognition that migration to Europe is a complex global issue with its roots in third countries and the understanding that European co-operation—not isolation—is key. We strongly support a controlled and managed migration system, and it is essential that we work with our European neighbours on a shared approach to the challenges and opportunities that migration creates.
What we are seeing is almost unprecedented in terms of a mass movement of desperate and vulnerable people risking life and limb to get to places where they believe they can be safe. We are very lucky to be able to live our lives free from such desperation. We have our own challenges in Scotland, but we have successfully accepted and integrated thousands of refugees into our communities over recent years.
My colleague, the Minister for Europe and International Development, visited Glasgow the Caring City on Monday with James Dornan and was amazed at the generosity that is being shown by members of the public, who have willingly donated what they can to help others who are in need. He will visit Lesbos this weekend to see at first hand the excellent work that the aid agencies carry out in difficult and harrowing circumstances. I am sure that members will welcome Humza Yousaf’s announcement earlier today that the Scottish Government will provide £300,000 to support humanitarian work in southern Europe by the British Red Cross and Mercy Corps, and that it will provide additional resources to Edinburgh Direct Aid and Glasgow the Caring City, which is referred to in the motion.
Such moments in human history can define nations. I am sure that I speak for all members when I say that I want Scotland to be defined by our compassionate and humane response to the crisis, our strong leadership on the international stage and the warmth of the welcome that we can and will provide to all people who come to our country to escape unimaginable horrors.
That concludes James Dornan’s debate on taking action to protect asylum seekers and refugees throughout Europe. Before I close the debate, I point out to members the earlier-than-usual start to the meeting this afternoon. I suspend the meeting until 2.15 pm.
13:15 Meeting suspended.Previous
First Minister’s Question Time