Ukraine: Refugees

Lord Cormack Excerpts

Wednesday 6th April 2022 Grand Committee

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

My Lords, I am delighted to follow my noble friend Lady Pidding and I strongly endorse what she said, particularly about the precarious position of Moldova. We must not forget that.

I join with everyone in eagerly anticipating the maiden speech of my noble friend Lord Harrington. He comes here—and I have been in this building for almost 52 years now—with more good will than I have ever known for any Minister. All he has to do is deliver the goods: a very easy task. But seriously, we look to him and will hang on his every word today.

Our prime thanks are to my noble friend Lady Helic, not only for securing the debate but for the way in which she introduced it. As she spoke, I thought—I was much involved in all the debates on Bosnia in the other place—how remarkable it is that a Bosnian refugee is now a Member of the British Parliament, a participating Member, a valued Member. But, as she made plain in her moving words, she will always have a regret that she could not realise her potential and have her career in her native land.

As she was speaking, I thought of another, whom I know my noble friend Lord Wigley—he is my noble friend—will remember, because he sat for a Welsh seat. Stefan Terlezki was the only Ukrainian ever to sit in the British Parliament. He was driven into slavery by the Russians, and managed to get out. He built a career in our free country and was elected to our Parliament to represent a seat in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales.

It is very important to remember as we see these ghastly pictures in our newspapers and on our television screens day after day, night after night, that although Ukrainians are fighting with incredible bravery, and we all pray for and will them to win, this could be a long haul. My noble friend Lady Helic reminded us in her speech of Yemen, Syria and Libya, where conflicts have been going on for years and destruction has followed destruction. We have got to be in this in the long haul for Ukraine, because if Ukraine is subjugated, if it ceases to be an independent country, we will all have lost and the tyrant who reigns in Moscow will just be tempted to further acts of aggression. So our commitment must be total.

However, this debate is rightly concentrating on the position of the refugees. We have heard some fine speeches and some moving references, particularly from my noble friend Lord Shrewsbury and the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff, to people who are suffering not because they are not welcome here, not because there are not arms to embrace them when they come here, but because of the ineptitude of British bureaucracy. This is what my noble friend must get right. We are all on his side. The noble Lord, Lord Paddick, asked a series of questions and at the end of this debate we want to have the answer to at least some of them—and very shortly, the answer to all of them. How many visas have actually been applied for? How many have been issued? How many people have been settled in British homes? How many are waiting, like the two sisters so movingly talked about by my noble friend Lord Shrewsbury? How many sisters and brothers are waiting, whose lives hang upon this? What we would say to the Minister—and I think I can speak for everyone in the Moses Room—is please, get it right. We are all on your side. Every one of us wants the Minister to succeed. We are willing him to succeed. We want to help him to succeed, but we must not have petty bureaucracy standing in the way of humanity. That is the fundamental point.

There was a reference earlier to Hungary in 1956. That was what brought me into politics. There we saw a proud people being subjugated in the most aggressive and bestial way. I was a young man, but it brought back to me the memories of the newsreels at the end of the war and of seeing the newsreels from Belsen. I have said in the House before that my mother tried to shield me from the screen and my father, who served throughout the war, said “No: he must see this so that he can perhaps play a tiny part in ensuring that it doesn’t happen again”. Well, it has; it is happening again now, and it is absolutely essential that we get this one right.

Ten days ago, I handed my noble friend a letter that my son gave me. My son works for an independent consultancy, but with Universities UK. The letter was signed by eight rectors or vice-rectors of medical schools in Ukraine and it builds on the points made by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff. They were asking that, where British universities were willing and able to welcome academics and others—students—please could their entry into this country be expedited. I still await a reply. My noble friend promised me that I would have a reply this week; it may even be in this debate, which would be marvellous.

These are people of high professional ability, or aspiring to it, if they are still students, whom British universities wish to help so they can continue their studies, develop their careers—and go back. The thing that comes over time and again as we listen is that they do not want refuge in this country, full stop. They want to go back and rebuild their own country. As the noble Baroness, Lady Helic, said, we must help them to do that.

I will not reopen the Brexit debate, but I very much sympathise with what my noble friend Lord Balfe said. We certainly have to work with our European friends and allies— although we are no longer fellow members, we are still friends and allies—in the rebuilding of a part of Europe that, as we have been recently reminded, is or was the breadbasket of Europe. The failure of the harvest this year will have repercussions all over Europe— indeed, all over the world.

I conclude by once again thanking my noble friend Lady Helic for introducing the debate as she did and welcoming my noble friend the Minister, with his myriad responsibilities, and, as I said, willing him to succeed.