Chamber and committees

I give an assurance to members that work on all those issues is on-going. Members will understand that the principal and immediate focus is on making arrangements and getting the agreements to put immediate support in place for people, accommodating them and providing them with health services and other support very quickly. However, we are already thinking about employability. Businesses and other sectors are already making offers of employment and accommodation support. Remember, we need people to come here and work across a range of sectors, so we are already seeking to collate and co-ordinate that. There will be requirements to help people who perhaps have qualifications in Ukraine to adapt those qualifications to here. I cannot give commitments right now, but that is work that we are exploring—for example, if somebody has qualifications in teaching or health care, are we able to support them to quickly make those skills available here? Work on all that is under way.

Similarly, on digital connectivity, a big part of that is making sure that we use all the systems that are there to speed up that work. Some parts of that will take longer to get in place than others, because the immediate focus is most important, but all that is part of a very rapid and comprehensive response. The reason that we are working through, and want to do this through, the supersponsor route is so that we can do it much more comprehensively and have greater visibility of how many people are here, where they will be and what skills they bring, which will allow us to act in a holistic way.

We will keep Parliament updated as that develops. We have referred to the Syrian precedent, but it is worth remembering that we had months to prepare for the Syrian settlement scheme. We are doing this literally in a matter of days, so I cannot answer every question in detail right now, but I can give an assurance that all these questions are being considered, and we are working at pace to put the answers and arrangements in place.

Yes, I do. We will seek to reach out to transport providers to make sure that that is the case. Ross Greer is rightly talking about transport and travel within Scotland, but we have also already had very tentative discussions to explore the possibility of our arranging travel to Scotland for people who are in Poland and who get agreement to come to Scotland. All that is very much in the ambit of what we are looking at. Not all those bits of support will be necessary for everybody, but we want to ensure that the support that we are able to provide is as comprehensive and all-encompassing as it can be.

Yes, I am confident that, through the scheme, we can match the generosity of the Scottish public.

Let me again be clear about what we are asking the UK Government to do. From Friday, when I understand that visas will start to be issued under the homes for Ukraine scheme, we are asking the UK Government, in effect, to issue 3,000 visas to people because we have said that we will sponsor them—so that the UK Government does not demand that individual sponsors in Scotland are identified for those people but allows the Scottish Government to be the single sponsor and lets them come to Scotland, where we will put in place temporary accommodation while we do the process of matching those people, who will be safely here.

Through all the work that we are doing, with operational meetings going on even as we speak, if we get that agreement from the UK Government, I believe that we can put in place the arrangements to give 3,000 people initially, and more later, the safe sanctuary that they need here. What we need, though, is the UK Government to be able and willing to start issuing the visas from this weekend. That is the bit that I hope to get agreement on. I am optimistic about it, but it is the bit that we still need to secure.

I know that there have been considerable delays with the UK Government’s matching process for Afghan families. Indeed, one of the reasons for our arguing initially for the UK Government to take a route other than a community sponsorship route was that our experience has been that we have managed to settle more people through the Syrian resettlement scheme than we have done through previous community sponsorship schemes.

However, that is the route that the UK Government has opted to take. It has simplified it and made the requirements less onerous than in previous schemes, which is welcome, but we must continue to do everything we can to make it as effective, efficient, quick, safe and humane for people as possible.

If we manage to make a success of the supersponsor proposal—as I really hope we will—it may give us lessons on how we deal with humanitarian crises like this in future, and I hope that the Home Office and the UK Government in general will be open, as we will be, to learning such lessons.

I am keen that we keep our focus on what we are trying to do to help Ukraine. I know that the point is serious and I am taking it seriously. I am just a little bit reluctant to give an answer that might generate a headline that detracts from the important work that we are doing.

Christine Grahame’s general point is right. We should look to use all possible ways of helping to accommodate people from Ukraine. We are all being asked whether we will do it. Everybody’s circumstances are different, but her general point is right that we should make available all accommodation that we reasonably can. That will allow us to ensure that we maximise the contribution that we make.

I thank Donald Cameron for his support, his comments and his questions.

I referred in my statement to the work that is being done with our partners to establish welcome hubs. Those arrangements will be in place to offer immediate practical advice, assistance and support to people who arrive. I hope that members will understand that, while we are seeking through our work with the UK Government to understand exactly when and where people will arrive, we cannot yet finalise the precise location of the hubs. However, that is under consideration and those decisions will be taken quickly and as soon as possible.

The hubs will offer welcome packs and information leaflets that will be translated into Ukrainian, with multi-agency teams already working to support that. The leaflets will offer information on how to access broader support, including social security benefits, which will be important, and translators will be on hand to help. We are considering how we provide language support, which will be a longer-term and on-going requirement.

The welcome hub approach will involve signposting people to healthcare services and to information on how they register with GPs. We are paying particular attention to an issue that was raised with me in the Parliament yesterday. We are taking advice from Public Health Scotland and the chief medical officer on the support that will be offered in the context of Covid—for example, providing vaccinations for people who have not had them.

That will all be part of the initial arrangements that will be in place to welcome and support people. Much of that work will have to continue on a longer-term and more sustainable basis. Those arrangements are being worked on, literally as we speak in the Parliament.

Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine is causing the largest displacement of people in Europe since world war two, and in a much shorter timescale. The United Nations has estimated that more than 3 million people—more than 5 per cent of Ukraine’s total population—have already left the country. Those who are fleeing, who are overwhelmingly women and children, are leaving their homes in circumstances that, however hard we might try, are impossible for us to truly imagine. They deserve, need and must receive compassion, care and support.

Countries across Europe are confronting this humanitarian emergency. It is estimated that 1.8 million people have arrived in Poland, 250,000 in Hungary and 80,000 in Moldova, which has a population of just 4 million. Last week, many of us were moved by scenes in Berlin of German families flocking to the railway station to offer shelter and support to those arriving from Ukraine.

However, even as we are moved and inspired by such scenes of compassion, we continue to be deeply shocked that this is happening at all. Just three weeks ago, the world still hoped that there would be no invasion. People in Ukraine were still going to work, school and university—they were living normal lives. Today, those lives have been ripped apart. More than 3 million are displaced, thousands more are fighting on front lines, many have been killed, and an entire population is showing incredible courage and resistance. All of that is down to the evil—I use that word deliberately—of one man: Vladimir Putin.

Scotland stands firmly with all Governments, including of course the United Kingdom Government, in condemning Putin’s war crimes, taking action to isolate and penalise his regime, and doing everything possible to support the people of Ukraine.

The Scottish Government is committed to playing our full part in the international effort to help those who are displaced as a result of the war. Other countries have waived the requirement for people from Ukraine to obtain visas in order to gain entry and settle. The strong preference of the Scottish Government is that the UK Government adopts the same approach. However, although we will continue to press for that, we will also work with UK ministers to make the processes that it has put in place as effective as possible. That is the focus of my statement today.

At present, people from Ukraine can enter the UK through the family scheme. I hope that the changes to the scheme that were announced last week will make it easier and quicker than it has been so far. A second route—homes for Ukraine—was announced this week. It is hoped that, in time, very significant numbers of Ukrainians will come to the UK through that scheme. The fact that more than 100,000 people across the UK have already signed up to offer accommodation demonstrates the willingness of the public to help. The response so far has been magnificent. However, the terms of the scheme mean that it will take time for that outpouring of support to translate into large numbers of Ukrainians actually being able to come to the UK.

The first phase of the scheme depends on matches being made between refugees and individual sponsors. Initially, it is only those who already have, or can themselves find, details of people who are seeking refuge who will be able to provide help quickly. The Scottish Government’s proposal seeks to short-circuit that process. We want and have offered to act as a single supersponsor to allow significant numbers of people who are fleeing Ukraine to come to Scotland immediately. We have offered to sponsor 3,000 people straight away, and in the longer term we have given an uncapped commitment to support at least 10 per cent of the total number who seek sanctuary in the UK.

In practice, Scottish Government sponsorship would mean that people from Ukraine do not need to be matched with individual sponsors before being allowed entry to the UK. They would be able to come here to sanctuary and safety first. We will provide temporary accommodation and then, with people already safely here and, I am sure, wrapped in a warm Scottish welcome, we will work at speed with partners including local councils, the Scottish Refugee Council, the national health service, Disclosure Scotland and others to complete safeguarding checks; put in place wider health, education, practical and befriending support; and arrange longer-term accommodation.

We warmly welcome and intend to fully harness the thousands of individual offers from people who are willing to provide refugees with a home, and I thank everyone who has volunteered. Of course, not everyone will be in a position to offer accommodation, but there will be many other ways for people to offer support.

However, welcome and necessary though the voluntary offers of accommodation are, we must be mindful that those who are fleeing the war may need to be here for a long time. They will wish—as we all wish for them—to return to Ukraine as soon as possible and for Scotland to be just a temporary home. Unfortunately, however, they may need to be here for longer than we can reasonably expect members of the public to provide accommodation. As well as fully harnessing the good will of people across Scotland, we therefore also need to plan for long-term sustainable accommodation and ensure that there is appropriate public service provision. I will say more about that shortly.

First, though, I underline the immediacy of the preparations that we are making. As I indicated yesterday, the UK Government has given in-principle support to the supersponsor proposal, and we are now working to agree the operational detail as quickly as possible. Our aim is that our supersponsor route will run in parallel with the first phase of the wider UK scheme. That should make it possible—this is certainly our hope—for the first 3,000 displaced Ukrainians to begin arriving in Scotland from as early as this weekend.

I make it clear that that is dependent on UK Government agreement, as only the Home Office can issue the visas, but in my view there is no good reason for that agreement not to be reached. We hope and expect that it will be, and—crucially—that is the basis on which we are now planning.

Detailed preparations are being led by Neil Gray as minister with special responsibility for co-ordinating the response. They cover five priorities: ensuring that we get the data that we need from UK Government systems, making contact with those who are coming to Scotland, securing short-term accommodation for those who need it, working on longer-term support including housing and community integration, and establishing welcome hubs over the coming days. I will say a bit more on each of those, and on resources to support delivery.

We are working closely with local authorities, other public sector agencies such as Disclosure Scotland, the third sector and the UK Government on the practical issues that need to be addressed to ensure that the process operates smoothly. For example, urgent work is under way to ensure the sharing of data from UK Government systems, including the visa application system. That information will allow us to better and more quickly understand who is coming here and what needs they might have. We are also exploring how we can start to make support available even before people get here—by providing help with travel, for example. As a matter of priority, we are working to secure immediate temporary accommodation that is safe and comfortable for people while longer-term arrangements are put in place.

In addition to harnessing voluntary support, we are assessing other, longer-term housing options. Those will include, where available, local authority and housing association properties, but also private sector or holiday accommodation. Finally, we are establishing with a range of partners including local authorities, the police, health services and the Scottish Refugee Council welcome hubs to offer practical help and assistance—for example, with food, clothing, healthcare, language support and signposting to other services. Decisions on exactly where those hubs will be located will firm up as we develop a better understanding of when and exactly where people will arrive.

We have considered the resources that are necessary to support this work in the first instance. I confirm that, in addition to financial support that the UK Government will provide, the Scottish Government is allocating £15 million to support our immediate refugee response. Just over £11 million of that will be allocated to local authorities, £2.25 million will be set aside for temporary accommodation, and a further £1.4 million is being allocated to the Scottish Refugee Council for the expansion of its refugee integration service. Earlier today, I visited the Scottish Refugee Council to discuss its invaluable contribution to Scotland’s response to the Ukraine crisis and to thank it for its wider work to support refugees and asylum seekers.

It is important for me to be clear to Parliament that the challenges of resettling thousands of displaced and traumatised people in such a short space of time are significant and should not be underestimated. Given the sheer pace at which everyone is working and the need to agree the operational arrangements with the UK Government, not every question of detail has a definite answer as yet.

Meeting the challenge will require effective and on-going co-operation between the Scottish and UK Governments and councils, with and across the wider public and third sectors, and with many other partners and local communities. Parliament also has a vital part to play. As MSPs, we often gain a unique insight into the quality of support that is provided on the ground and can be instrumental in ensuring that problems are identified and quickly addressed.

For all the undoubted challenges, however, I am confident that Scotland will live up to our humanitarian obligations. We have recent experience of successfully integrating refugees into our communities, schools and workplaces. I am confident that we will provide not just refuge but a warm welcome and a helping hand to people whose lives have been ripped apart. We will open our doors and our hearts.

The duty of Government is to ensure that the practical assistance that we provide matches the warmth and good will of people across the country. We have an obligation to play our full part in the global humanitarian effort and to offer sanctuary, security and a home to thousands of people who desperately need it. I know that those aims are shared across Parliament. Let us all work together as we stand in resolute solidarity with the people of Ukraine in this hour of need.

We are drawing heavily on experience gained through all previous refugee integration work, not just that with those from Afghanistan. It is not fair to describe that as a failure. There is an on-going process to welcome people here and to settle them and integrate them into our communities. Anybody who looks fairly at the response of the Scottish public, local authorities and other agencies, and at the success of the work that they did in supporting the Syrian resettlement scheme, would know that we have a lot of positive experience to draw on from that. We want to see that work being embedded in the new Scots strategy, and that is one of the things that I was talking about with the Scottish Refugee Council this morning.

The figure of 3,000 that we have initially committed to welcoming through the UK Government supersponsor scheme has not been drawn from nowhere. We were able to settle 3,000 refugees through the Syrian resettlement scheme, so we know that, although this is being done much more quickly than with the Syrian scheme, we can do that relatively quickly. We will learn all the lessons—the good ones and the more challenging ones.

There are lots of challenges in this and, if we were simply to look at the situation as a challenge, we would shy away from it. This is a moral, humanitarian obligation that we, in common with other countries across the world, have right now. I am not standing here suggesting that it will be easy and straightforward, that there will not be difficulties and challenges, or that we will not face hurdles along the way, but we have a duty to do this work and, with our partners, we are focused on making sure that we get it right, and that we put all the practical arrangements in place as quickly as possible.

Kaukab Stewart makes an important point. We are all horrified by what is happening in and to Ukraine right now and we all desperately want to do everything that we can to help, but the duty to give refuge to people who are fleeing war or famine does not depend on where they come from, who they are, what their religion or faith is or what culture they come from; it is a duty that we all owe, as a matter of humanity, to everybody who needs it.

I believe that, notwithstanding the challenges that are involved, Scotland has a good record on opening our doors and hearts to Syrian and Afghan refugees. Perhaps one of the lessons that we can learn, not just in the immediate response to those people who are fleeing war in Ukraine, is that we have a duty to open our hearts to people who are fleeing war from all parts of the world.

Safeguarding is central to all the discussions that we are having with partners. It is really important that, as we harness the outpouring of support from the public, we do not neglect the wellbeing and the safety of those who are fleeing war and trauma. Obviously, our principal discussions are with Disclosure Scotland, to ensure that we have the processes in place to quickly do appropriate checks, but I assure the chamber that that is a critical part of all the work that we are doing as we seek to put in place the arrangements for immediate welcome, and to ensure that that support continues as people settle and integrate here. The focus on wellbeing and safety applies to accommodation, health services and wider support services, too.

Our first priority—this is the whole intention of the supersponsor proposal—is to get people to sanctuary in Scotland as quickly as possible, rather than having bureaucratic processes that take a long time while people are still in Poland or other countries. Because we will want to do the longer-term matching process while people are in Scotland, that will mean that there will be a period in which we house them in temporary accommodation. Work is being done as we speak to secure temporary accommodation. In the short term, that is likely to be hotel accommodation; it could perhaps be university accommodation. It is our intention that that will be short term, while the longer-term support is put in place.

I think that having people in short-term accommodation is preferable to their having to go through long-standing bureaucratic processes just to get here in the first place. Speed of action is really important here, but that must be underpinned by all the proper safeguarding and other processes that everybody has a right to expect.

There is also a need to recognise that, while we are hugely grateful for and must harness the public’s support and offers of accommodation, we should not take that for granted, nor should we expect members of the public to shoulder a disproportionate part of the responsibility. Some people will be able to offer accommodation, and some will be able to do it for longer than others. We all hope that the war will end quickly and that people will be able to go home as quickly as possible, but if people need to be here for a longer period of time, we must think about the long-term sustainability of accommodation and not expect members of the public to make their homes available for very lengthy periods of time.

We are thinking about all those issues very carefully. We are not just thinking about them; we are seeking to get on at pace and make sure that we have in place the arrangements that will allow us to start welcoming people within days, if the UK Government and the Home Office make it possible for us to do so.