Ukraine

Baroness Smith of Newnham Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd March 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

I thank the noble Lord for his question. As I am sure all noble Lords have seen, a letter was received yesterday from the Home Office and from the Business Secretary talking about the forthcoming Bill which will go through the House of Commons next week and will be in your Lordships’ House in a couple of weeks. The noble Lord makes some very sensible suggestions. I do not know what the legal niceties would be, but I will certainly take those suggestions back.

[Baroness Smith of Newnham (LD)]

My Lords, I will ask the Minister to try again with the question asked by his noble friend Lady Verma which was about people who are leaving Ukraine but are not Ukrainian nationals. In particular, the BBC was showing pictures of Afghan refugees who had been in Ukraine. As I understand it, they would not fall under the humanitarian sponsorship pathway because the statement says that this pathway is for Ukrainians. For those people who do not have Ukrainian citizenship but are fleeing, will the Government make any offer to them—and, particularly, to anyone who is from Afghanistan?

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

Afghans obviously have access to the Afghan resettlement scheme but—I reiterate the point—we have started work on the humanitarian visa scheme. There are lots of safe and legal routes open to Afghans who may find themselves in Ukraine.