Ukraine: Forcible Removal of Children

Patricia Ferguson Excerpts

Thursday 20th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

The hon. Gentleman’s tone is absolutely right. I have described some of the tracing efforts that we are engaged in, but clearly, simply locating these children in Russia is not enough—they must also be returned. We will continue to work at every level; the Minister for Europe has met with civil society organisations involved in those efforts, as has Baroness Harman, our special envoy for women and girls, and the Foreign Secretary has discussed the children with her opposite numbers. We will continue to give this issue the focus that the hon. Gentleman rightly demands of us, and I assure the country that we will do so until the children are returned.

[Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow West) (Lab)]

It would seem that the traditional role of the American President as someone who can straddle the world stage, working with friends and allies to achieve outcomes for good across the world, is in danger of being diminished to the role of someone who proffers capitulation on behalf of another sovereign nation. That is something that we cannot accept.

On the children who are the focus of this urgent question, I, too, pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South (Johanna Baxter). As young people are returned—hopefully in increasing numbers—what work can we do as a country and a Government to ensure the reintegration of those young people into the society that Putin worked so hard to prevent them being part of?

[Mr Falconer]

We must work to see those children returned. We are an active member of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children, and we work closely with the Ukrainian Government on these questions. My hon. Friend is absolutely right that one can hardly imagine the trauma, confusion and status of those children on their return to Ukraine. We will do what we can to support the Ukrainian Government in their efforts in that area.