Plaid Cymru spokesperson for Social Justice and Equalities, Sioned Williams MS, last night lambasted the UK Government's proposed new Illegal Migration Bill, labelling it as "inhumane" and "immoral".
Speaking at the Senedd yesterday evening, Sioned Williams, Plaid Cymru MS for South Wales West, drew attention to the negative effects that the proposed new Bill, introduced by the Tory UK Government, would have on the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, and defended the right of the Senedd to reject any Westminster legislation that's "incompatible with the values and best interests of Wales".
Yesterday, Members of Senedd debated whether or not to give legislative consent to the Bill. The Senedd voted against.
During her contribution to the Senedd debate, Sioned Williams also referred to the rare political intervention recently seen by the Wiener Holocaust Library, the world’s oldest and Britain’s largest collection of original archival material on the Nazi era, who have expressed concern about the impact of the UK Government’s proposed Illegal Migration Bill and the discourse and language surrounding its formulation.
Sioned Williams MS said:
"I was so glad that the Senedd voted yesterday against consenting to the inhumane and immoral Illegal Migration Bill, a Bill which could require Wales to breach international human rights law, contrary to our own devolution settlement. This Bill is incompatible, for example, with the European Convention on Human Rights, the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
"The Bill is also wholly incompatible with the child-first, migrant-second approach that upholds the best interests and rights of children in Wales and with our commitment of being a Nation Of Sanctuary."Plaid Cymru opposes any attempt to undermine the right and power of this Senedd to legislate in devolved policy areas. This Bill is the perfect example of why we hold that view. We, the elected representatives of the people of Wales, must be given the right to decide what benefits our own communities and who we would welcome to those communities. The Government elected by the people of Wales ought to have the powers to ensure that any legislation incompatible with the values and best interests of Wales, such as this illegal Bill, would not apply in Wales."