Found: Members present: Lord Foster of Bath (The Chair); Lord Bach; Baroness Buscombe; Baroness Cash; Lord Dubs

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<p>Good afternoon, First Minister.&nbsp;I'd just like to follow on from Sioned's points in relation to asylum seeking and refugee children. I'm also shocked by the Home Secretary's plans that, as we understand, would see children and families—children who are already frightened and vulnerable and potentially very settled in their communities—being ripped out, potentially a forced removal back to a country that many of them don't know. No-one wants to get into a small boat and cross a huge expanse of water, but that's what they're faced with when there are no safe and legal routes. Lord Dubs, as a child who came on the Kindertransport, yesterday said that this approach uses children as a weapon and is a shabby thing. Amnesty International warns that it represents a dangerous drift towards treating fundamental human rights as optional.</p>
<p>I have worked with children and families, many of those children have been terrified by the thought of dawn raids to remove them to deportation centres and then back home. We are faced with that again on a much larger scale, as we're seeing, right now, in the United States. So, I'd like to ask you, First Minister: what is your view on the plans put forward by the Home Secretary yesterday, particularly when it comes to our children and young people? Diolch yn fawr iawn.</p>

<p>Well, I think we've got to note the significant contribution that migrants make to our country. The fact is that, in all kinds of aspects, where we rely on people, we are dependent on people who have come here from other countries, not least the health service, the care service; we're utterly dependent on the skills of these people and their contributions.</p>
<p>I listened carefully to Lord Dubs on the radio this morning. He is really a symbolic figure of a group of children who came to this country, and our country was there to open our arms to them. And you think about the contribution of somebody like Lord Dubs, not just to his community but to our nation, and I think it is important that we are generous when it comes to our welcome. Clearly, we all want to see illegal immigration being addressed, but I think we've got to be extremely sensitive and extremely careful when it comes to creating an otherness of people who have made their homes amongst us.</p>