Proceeding contribution from Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party) in the House of Commons on Wednesday, 16 March 2022. It occurred during Opposition day on Refugees from Ukraine.
Refugees from Ukraine
I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention. I think that a lot of this is tied up with Home Office culture. She is right to raise the Irish example, which I will come to in a moment.
At this rate of progress, it will be many months before we get even close to the 100,000 that the Prime Minister first spoke about, never mind the subsequent 200,000 that he has referred to. This is an acute crisis that is happening now, and we need to be meeting our responsibilities now, not a few months down the line. On the Irish example, Ireland has taken almost 7,000 already. I am not saying that because this is some sort of competition to see who can take in the most Ukrainians. I am pointing it out because it illustrates precisely the impact that visa restrictions are having. The United Kingdom is 13 times bigger than Ireland and has a Ukrainian diaspora that is larger by a similar magnitude, but three weeks in, we have granted refuge to and welcomed a smaller number. The difference is that we require visas and the Irish do not.
Secondary information
- Type
- Proceeding contribution
- Reference
- 710 c900
- Session
- 2021-22
- Chamber / Committee
- House of Commons chamber
- Subjects
- Armed conflict Housing Finance Families Refugees Visas Sponsorship Russia Ukraine Electronic government Homes for Ukraine scheme
- Link
- View this Proceeding contribution on hansard.parliament.uk
Librarians' tools
- Timestamp
- 2022-03-25 13:00:54 +0000
- URI
- http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Commons/2022-03-16/22031634000038
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- http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Commons/2022-03-16/22031634000038
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