Ukraine: Refugees

Baroness Pidding Excerpts

Wednesday 6th April 2022 Grand Committee

[Baroness Pidding (Con)]

My Lords, I start by thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Helic, for bringing forward this debate and sharing her personal experience. I also join others, rather belatedly, in welcoming my noble friend the Minister to the House. I very much look forward to hearing his official maiden speech. What is a loss to the Green Benches is most definitely a real gain for us. I have known him for some years, including through campaigning for him in Watford. He was a joy to work alongside and, I know, left big shoes to fill. He has a reputation for getting things done, and he does this through the most admirable work ethic and his generous warmth. I know that he will become, and is already becoming, a popular figure on all sides of this House. My noble friend really is a most welcome addition to our Benches and will be a most effective Minister.

None of us can have escaped the feelings of revulsion, horror and outrage—and, ultimately, of rank desperation —at the scenes we have witnessed in Ukraine over past weeks. To witness the dissemination of a European nation by a cold-blooded invader invokes the very worst images from the bowels of history. The scenes in Bucha remind us of one of the massacres in Srebrenica, and the destruction of Mariupol conjures images of Europe’s shattered cities after World War II. The cruel rhetoric of Vladimir Putin apes the likes of Hitler, Milošević and Ceausescu. But in this darkness is also light: the bravery of the Ukrainian people, their fortitude, spirit and courage, also reminds us of the very best of human endeavour.

I am proud of the role that the United Kingdom has played in Ukraine. From training more than 20,000 of the country’s armed forces since Russia’s first incursion into the country in 2014, to the Government’s decision to provide Ukrainian armed forces with the deadly weaponry they need to defend their homeland, to the recent refugee resettlement scheme, we have truly stepped up as a people. However, we must keep asking ourselves what more we can do.

I must express a note of grave concern for what Russia’s invasion of Ukraine means for wider eastern Europe. For three decades, Russian troops have occupied 20% of Georgia, de facto annexing the provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes. More than 30 years since it was invaded, they still have not been able to return home. I urge the Government to continue providing support by whatever possible means, military or financial, to bolster Georgia’s precarious position as the only true democracy in the south Caucasus.

The Russian armed forces continue to occupy an eastern province of Moldova, which they use as a glorified military garrison, while suppressing its local Romanian-speaking population. The challenge in Moldova is even more acute: every day, tens of thousands of internally displaced people from Ukraine continue to pour across its borders, en route to sanctuary in more affluent states further west. For Europe’s poorest country, a nation of 2.6 million people, to have welcomed more than 400,000 refugees is an impressive feat. But the country is at breaking point. I urge the Minister to build on the excellent work that he and his colleagues have already done and continue extending UK financial support to Moldova, Slovakia, Poland and all other frontier nations taking in Ukrainian refugees.

I also pay the fullest tribute to Poland, our country’s greatest European ally, for the leadership it has shown in both the resettlement of refugees and the pursuit of sanctions on Russia. The conclusion of the new trilateral security pact between the UK, Poland and Ukraine offers huge opportunities for our country to continue furthering peace and security in Europe—something every Member of this House welcomes.

In conclusion, I have a further request of the Minister, who I know to be a man of decency and impressive organisational zeal. As a result of the excellent Homes for Ukraine scheme, many refugees have already arrived in the UK. Their immediate needs are taken care of—they are warm, safe and welcome—but we must redouble our efforts to ensure that bureaucratic hurdles are eliminated, including ensuring that they are given the right to work and to contribute freely to society in the UK. I trust the Minister will say more about this in his response.

At a time of conflict, the United Kingdom has always been a sanctuary for the hungry, the poor, the broken and the battered. We will always rise to the challenge and will do so again now.