 Ia gyda'r ffordd?roi gwml pan ni'n brydi an muffled air o d buffledau? Fe poth am contr 해요, ac i'n dewis двигiaeth ond i'r pasiad uchydigig yn yr Ein Llyfrgell hundreds I check asylum seekers and refugees across Europe. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put. I would ask those members who wish to speak in the debate to press the request to speak buttons now. Mr Jordan save 7 minutes please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I would like to start by welcoming Rosgo Brath from Glasgow to Caring City to the chamber. I am feeling a little stuck waiting for the rest of the people to leave first. I will always be in the building. I also want to put in record my thanks to Graham and Neil and the team at the Scottish Refugee Council for preparing a brief and for all their assistance with this debate. Of course, I would like to thank all those members who signed my motion and are participating in this debate. Presiding Officer, I wrote this motion some time ago, after hearing about the deaths of 70 asylum seekers in the back of a truck close to the Austrian border. This event hit me hard, and I was sure that this horrific incident would be the straw that broke the camel's back, that such a tragedy would force a hand of Europe's Governments to start working together constructively to offer refuge and asylum to people fleeing the unimaginable hardship of war in their countries. I was delighted to hear on Tuesday that the main suspect in this horrible act was to be extradited from Bulgaria. The involvement of people traffickers in these deaths, as well as countless others, was also another thing that I believed would jolt the EU into action, and I put the remarks by Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Michal Lytner into the motion to endorse the idea that we must have a plan to deal with the human smuggling and trafficking that happens wherever there is human misery. Just imagine that your life is so horrible, so full of fear and hopelessness that you put yourself and your family in the hands of these dealers in death. Coincidentally, part of this afternoon's business is a stage 3 debate on the human trafficking and exploitation Scotland bill, very timely indeed. Yet this tragedy did not turn the tide in the way that I hoped it would when I wrote the motion. That came a few days later with the heartbreaking and tragic image of we, Ali and Kurdai, on the beach. An image I will take some time to go overseeing, and I suspect many others will too. The public response to that image was overwhelming, from the nations pouring in from all parts of Scotland, to vigils and fundraisers, to forming of groups such as Scotland supporting refugees, and now the Scottish Government and Scottish Refugee Council website Scotland welcomes refugees. The reaction from the Scottish public, third sector, local organisations and most politicians has been swift and unequivocal. Scotland welcomes refugees, and we will do all we can to make them feel that welcome, support them and assist them to become part of their communities. My constituency of... Alex Salmond. Can I congratulate James Donan on the member's debate? I tabled a similar motion at its heart of saying that we had to, as a country, accept a joint responsibility for refugees arriving in Europe, as well as helping those in the camps in the Middle East. Although it got substantial cross-party support in the House of Commons, it was defeated by the Government. Does James Donan agree with me that if that motion, which is the same at its heart as the motion that was tabled in the House of Commons, was able to be voted on in this Parliament, it would carry by a very substantial majority? James Donan. It will be no surprise to anybody that I agree with every word that Mr Salmond said. I get into that habit over a number of years, but if you listen to my speech, you will hear me coming on to pretty much say exactly that. In my constituency of Kithcart, the work of Glasgow to Caring City has been nothing short of awe-inspiring. A few weeks ago, I was contacted by the Reverend Neil and Roswell Brath to discuss a shipment of the nations that we are putting together to go to the Balkans to support those refugees who were attempting at that stage to enter the EU through Hungary to see how we could assist. I immediately contacted Martin Armstrong, chief executive of the Wheatley Group, to see if they would be able to offer any assistance and was delighted when he said that they would give a cash donation to help with shipping costs and make a call to our two and a half thousand staff to donate clothing for the refugees. Four days after the call went out, Ross and I went to pick up the aid that was donated by the staff. I was stunned that in that short period of time they donated two tonnes of clothes. A huge thanks is due to all those wonderful people who gave so generously. Yet another example of Glasgow's huge heart occurred in that visit. We were loading the van when a seldomly gentleman passed. He stopped to ask what we were doing and when it was explained, walked on, then turned round and offered us £20. I do not mean any disrespect here, as a matter of fact, to the exact opposite of the case, but I doubt that he could easily have afforded to give that money. Yet he would not be dissuaded, he wanted to do his bit. Scotland's response to this tragedy has been full of stories like that. The Reverend Gilbeth told me of a young boy in his congregation who donated a red hoodie, and in a pocket the young boy had written a letter for the new recipient of the hoodie. That letter and the hoodie are heading to the Balkans, and the recipient will see that here in Glasgow there is a wee boy that wants to help. I was pleased to join Minister for International Development, Hamza Yousaf, in a visit to see the great work the volunteers of the Caring City are doing earlier this week. Their hard work and dedication has ensured that over 70 tonnes of clothing and soap are ready to go to the refugees. That shipment will be getting sent to the Balkans early next week, and I am excited to say that I will be in Serbia towards the end of next week to meet the mayor of Novi Sad and to see for myself the difference the generosity of Scots will make to those refugees fleeing the horrors of their homeland. Of course, the work done by charities across Scotland to help the refugees where they are currently stranded across Europe and further afield is only part of it. We have to be prepared to help when they get here, and I have been struck by the amount of people who have popped into my office offering to help refugees when they arrive. One couple have a spare room that they can offer, and another teaches English as a foreign language and wants to volunteer her time. That is why I am so supportive of the Scotland welcomes refugee website. We need that one go-to place for people both offering and requiring support. The website www.scotlandwelcomesrefugees.scot is that place. This is not a motion for attacking the UK Government, but I would be derelict in my duties if I did not take this opportunity to urge them to rethink their policy in this crisis. I welcome the money that they are spending and their commitment to take refugees in, even if it is a miserly 20,000 over five years. The response so far is completely out of step, certainly with what we are seeing here in Scotland and across many other parts of Europe. There is a further meeting of the European Commission in the coming weeks, and the time has long come for the UK to step up to the plate and offer meaningful long-term assistance. In Scotland we have the room, the resources, the political and public will to help, and I hope that following that meeting that a broader European strategy can be found that allows us to do even more than we are able to do just now. Periodically, there is a tragedy that plucks at heart strings in the public more than others. It may be because it involves children, because of some horrible photo or video, the longevity and hopelessness of it are simply the pure scale of the horror. This crisis is all these things. The long-term may must be to make the Middle East a safer place to allow people to return to their home in safety, because despite right-wing propaganda's claims, this is what most of them want to do. However, until then, we as a Parliament, as a Government and as people, have to step up to that plate to help in every way that we can to make life that little bit easier to bear. So far Scotland has done that and more. I just want to finish off, Presiding Officer, by thanking again everybody who signed my motion and is taking part in the debate, by thanking the Scottish Parliament for giving me the opportunity to raise this issue. I thank the cabinet secretary for being here to respond to it and hope that, just by having this debate, we have helped to keep the plate of the refugees full square in the public player. Thank you very much. Many thanks. I now turn to the open debate speeches of four minutes, please. Malcolm Chisholm, to be followed by Christian Allard. I congratulate James Donner for bringing this most important issue to the chamber and welcome the opportunity to recognise the many great charities who work across Scotland to welcome and support refugees and asylum seekers. People who arrive on our shores are fleeing unimaginable hardship and conflict, and humanity calls on us to see them not as statistics but as individuals—women, men and children—who have suffered so much. We see this humanity represented in the work of charities, and I would like to pay tribute to the many who are based in the northern Edinburgh and Leith constituency, who offer advice, teach English, enable training and generally help people to settle down in their new community. That includes multicultural family based in Leith, Sahilia for BME women and girls and the living and harmony group in north Edinburgh. Those groups recognise that to come to a new country under any condition is daunting, but to arrive in search of sanctuary from trauma requires extra help, emotional support, counselling, practical advice and, most often, quite simply, a friendly face. We all have a role to play in assisting the crisis that is faced by refugees in making the journey from Syria in particular. The Scottish Refugee Council provides a first response for all newly arrived refugees in Scotland, and they have put measures in place that allow the public to fundraise and donate. The council provides links to a new online hub for people in Scotland to register their support and find out more about Scotland's response to the refugee crisis. Scotland welcomesrefugees.org is a fantastic site that includes details of how to donate with links to all the charities currently seeking donations, how you may offer practical support, allowing your details to be logged along other expressions of support for future refugees and also a guide for how to host fundraising events. There is such an appetite for getting involved, sparked by the realisation of the full extent of the crisis in shocking scenes from traffickers boats and the beaches of Lesbos. The callied phenomenon, which has seen dozens of shipments of clothing and essentials transported to Calais, is testament to the appetite to help to effect a positive outcome for refugees. In the debate in September earlier, all parties, with the exception, I am afraid of the Conservatives, called on the UK Government to do more and to extend the number of refugees allowed into the UK and for Scotland to welcome far more than the initial thousand, allowing us to offer a future with inclusive opportunities. The measures required need to reflect the extent of the crisis and nothing short of an EU-wide strategy will suffice. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, as of September 2015, over 12.2 million Syrians living within the country's borders are in need of assistance. 7.6 million are internally displaced and 4.1 million Syrians who have been forced to flee abroad, with most settling in an overpopulated and under-resourced refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. The scale of the crisis in these areas is unprecedented, and with the harsh winter approaching, humanitarian organisations such as UNHCR have already started to voice their concerns about resourcing. The solution to this crisis cannot be met while party political agendas are being pursued. This requires a cross-party consensus in this country and a cross-border effort that takes a strategic approach across Europe. There are vital talks coming up this month in which the UK must play an active part. We should be at the table talking about how we will play our part in the global mission to ease the crisis of refugees fleeing war. The motion states that for the UK to continue to stand by the sidelines would be, and I quote, senseless and untenable, and I wholeheartedly agree. We have a moral obligation as a country whose repeated interventions in the region may have had some impact on its stability to take on our full quota of refugees. It should be seen as our obligation, as a member state, in solidarity with others in the EU who are under increasing pressure. We have the resources, we have the infrastructure and we have the will power, what we require now, as leadership. Many thanks. I now call Christian Al-Ard to be followed by Jamie McGregor. Thank you, officer, and I would like to thank Jim Donald again for bringing that to our attention again the refugee crisis. It's so important that we get that through today again, and I would like to use maybe another word from another language to say thank you to Jim Donald, to say shukran, and why do I want to say shukran, because we heard it last night on the BBC, journalist, and thank you for all the journalists who go across Europe to bring us back the images and the testimony of what's happening, this movement of desperate people of refugees coming across to Europe. And I was struck by the BBC journalist who, when he helped one of his refugees, the refugees answered shukran very politely. And understanding that, you know, there's refugees that people just like us is what they are. When they left Syria, they were leaving just like us. And that's very reminiscent of what happened in World War II, it's those refugees are people just like us. So I would like to thank Jim Donald, but I would like to thank as well the people of Scotland and in the Northeast. I know he talked about the huge heart in Glasgow. We've got a huge heart in the Northeast as well, maybe better to hide it, maybe better. I would like to say that there have been fantastic way of groups like the Aberdeen Refugee Solidarity campaign. And in Dundee, the Dundee Refugee Support, groups that have already began, therefore, to take donation to the Calais camp, were really when we started to hear about the refugee crisis. And I would like to say that I did write to the French President beginning of the year to ask that collaboration between the two government. That was an opportunity there at the start of the year to address the refugee crisis. Lawry drivers were telling me, I used to work in the haulage industry and they come back to me and they tell me, Christian, this is not what we have usually in Calais. This is different. Something is happening. And that refugee crisis happened already there in Calais. And the response of the UK government was exactly what not to do. And that example from the UK government had maybe been followed by some European countries. And we heard that again last night in the BBC. But really, the UK government started it, didn't respond properly to a crisis. You know, the erection of this fence is not short when it is great. And I would like to say another testimony. I saw a mother in Aberdeen and she was so pleased to tell me about the work of her daughter that a young person is in Jordan just now and is helping in a refugee camp. And I said to the mother, you know, please tell the daughter to write to me if she wants to give me a testimony of what's happening down there. And she did write. And she said a lot of things about what the situation was down there. And that bring back was the Scottish Government is talking about the direction it's taking and particularly when, as the First Minister said, that it's not a neither-or-approach regarding helping the people in the refugee camp, in the Middle East, who are helping the refugee, who are across Europe just now. We need to do both. And it's very important. On that point, will the question be aware that, on 22 September, the EU agreed to take in 120,000 more in-take from places like Italy and Greece, but the UK and Denmark absolved themselves from that responsibility? Did they not think that that was utterly wrong of the UK? I absolutely agree with my colleague there. There is really an example of the UK Government not to follow us started as a start of its crisis. We're coming back to that young lady. She described a number of families and individuals in her correspondence to me. And she's asking us, she's asking us on behalf of all these people to help. And it's so important that we do. And she said, and she wrote, despite the aid that it's been giving out here, including from money from the UK Government, she said it is nowhere near enough. Many women that she has spoken to came through years ago, some of them pregnant and now with children who have been born in Jordan. And she went and explained as well about the situation of these people. And she said, and I use her words, they are living in awful conditions with poor access to basic water and sanitation facilities. I don't have enough to eat or for rent. Many of them are evicted and are begging or selling themselves on the streets for money. It is what it's all about. So I thank again James Dornan for it and for the people of Scotland to respond the way we have. Many thanks and I will call Jamie McGligger to be followed by Sandra White. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Firstly, I would like to congratulate James Dornan on securing time for such an important debate. Refugee crisis, the worst that we've ever seen, that has been unravelling before our eyes, has affected us all in one way or another. And it's important that we debate what the right action is in order to protect those that are the most vulnerable. And this morning, the EU committee hosted a round table of experts to shed more light on the crisis and suggest what Scotland can do to help and I praise the many individuals, charities and local authorities in Scotland who are already working with asylum seekers and refugees to alleviate suffering or stand ready to do so when they arrive in this country. This includes local authorities in my region of the highlands and islands. Morag Brown of our Garland Bute Council attended the meeting this morning. We are a very civilised nation and will I have no doubt make the refugees welcome in our communities as we have done so in the past. I'm disappointed that the motion clearly seeks to shame the UK government and I reject this notion completely for a very simple reason. Over the past months, the horrendous incidents and accidents with refugees being suffocated in the back of trucks or drowning in the Mediterranean have caught the eyes of the world. Rightly so, many of these refugees find themselves in the claws of human traffickers. The UK system of going to the camps and surrounding Syria and giving asylum to those the most vulnerable, we are not only undermining the human traffickers but also make it harder for individuals with malicious intent to enter the UK. We are the world's second largest bilateral donor of aid to the Syrian conflict. That is the UK and Scotland's part of that. And we have provided more than 18 million food rations given 1.6 million people access to clean water. We are providing education to a quarter of a million children and we will increase this number. The UK government announced a further 100 million in aid last week, taking our total contribution to over one billion. Now that's the largest response ever by the UK to a humanitarian crisis. So I wouldn't call that standing on the sidelines. And we should be proud of that and proud of the fact the UK is one of the only major countries in the world to honour its commitment to spend 0.7% of its GDP on foreign aid. And the UK is, in my opinion, lucky not to be a member of the Schengen Agreement. The crisis has showcased many of the weaknesses in this thing and the European response to the refugee crisis. The principle of no internal borders relies on the enforcement of an outer border to ensure that Europe remains secure. This system has failed catastrophically, and it poses significant security risks and many questions to EU citizens and refugees alike, as these gaps in the outer border will have been exploited by those who intend harm. This refugee crisis is heartbreaking and upsetting, and I know that all of us can agree with that. But the refugee crisis is a direct consequence of the political situation and violent wars, therefore we should surely concur with the UK Government and the international community that we must adopt a comprehensive approach that tackles the causes of this problem, as well as the consequences. The greatest contribution that the UK can make is to work to end the conflict altogether, and we must continue to seek a peaceful settlement that enables a political transition and an end to violence. However hard that may be and how far away from that position we might be now, we have to go on that path, and we must take a similar approach towards Libya and other states where political violence and turmoil are harming the people of these countries and driving this terrible refugee crisis. Just two weeks ago, in relation to the refugee crisis, and unfortunately nothing has changed, people have been washed up on the shores, and that is why I thank James Donan so much for bringing this forward again to speak about it. I thank the Reverend Gilbrath in Glasgow, Caring City for the work that has been carried out there and many others, where I will go on to talk about it also. However, I cannot let Jamie McGregor's contribution pass without comment. We are talking about wars that have been created, and I said this in the debate, by the west. We want an end to the conflict, but we are morally and duty bound to protect and help those people, and we are talking about stopping the conflict. We are talking about the House of Commons going to bomb Syria once again. I think that Jamie McGregor should look to his party down in Westminster in relation to what is happening in the unfortunate parts of the Middle East. I ask constantly all the time, who are we to pick and choose who comes to our shores? We pick and choose just people who are in the refugee camps in Lebanon, in other areas in Turkey, with the people who are languishing in Greece, in Lesbos and Calais. We do not open our arms to them. Who are we to say that we can pick and choose who is to come to our country and who we have to help? I find that pretty obnoxious to say a thing like that. I want to talk about a more positive aspect and thank the many people who have helped throughout Scotland. This week, I have been at two events. On Monday night, I attended an event in the Yes Bar, where Suzanne McLaughlin organised, with many other people, a comedy night in the Yes Bar for refugees for Glasgow's caring city. We raised more than £2,000 on that one night, which was absolutely fantastic. It was a great fun way to raise the money for the refugees. On Tuesday night, I attended a meeting with nearly 400 people, members of the public, at the Charles Wilson building in Glasgow University. That was organised by Glantel Campaigns, Welcome Refugees and many others at SGC, among them also. We heard harrowing first-hand accounts from people that I mentioned in the previous meeting, who were going over to Lesbos and to Athens to actively help Margaret Woods, Pina and others. They gave us the account of what they saw over there on the shores. We had slides, and it was very, very moving. They gave us an account where they watched two boats that were coming in, and they rushed to help. There was a baby that was carried from those boats, which was handed to one of the young girls who was helping there, along with Margaret Woods and Pina as well. That baby was so cold that they didn't know if that baby was going to survive or not. The baby did survive. Thankfully, we saw pictures of her being fed, etc. Those are the real heartwarming stories. Those are ordinary people going out of their way. Out of that 400 people were in the audience that night. We raised over £1,000 just from the audience, and that money is going straight to Greece to help the people on the ground there. They are also sending a truckload of clothes, etc, to Calais to help them. That is the real story of the people on the ground who want to help and who see the suffering. They don't care where they come from. They say that those people are suffering and dying daily. Some of those people in Greece, in particular—I know that they have had their problems, but we had evidence from them that they were being asked to spend €2 for a bottle of water, capitalism alive again. They were arriving in from those boats, starving, needing water. They were being charged by some people for €2, and the refugees were given them for free, obviously. That is the real story behind that. I thank James once again for allowing us to talk about it. The people on the ground want to help the people, and that is what it is all about. I thank James Dornan for securing the time and the chamber this afternoon to debate on what has become Europe's worst refugee crisis since the Second World War. The whole country is moved by the on-going crisis, with people taking desperate measures to cross the Mediterranean from places, including Syria and Libya. More than 2,700 lives have been lost so far this year, and it is an unsuccessful mission to reach Europe in order to seek asylum or refuge. In my own regional area of Glasgow, I am proud that residents are doing what they can to help. Glasgow has now the highest population of asylum seekers outside London. Glasgow's record on providing refuge is the result of a great work of charities and organisations across the city and Glasgow City Council. As I have mentioned in a debate that we had in the chamber a couple of weeks ago, Glasgow City Council has already provided homes to 55 Syrians who have fled the war in their home country. It has also agreed to take in more, outlining its belief that it is simply the right thing to do. I was delighted to see the success of Glasgow City's Syria event in George's Square, which included drop-off points for food donations from members of the public and to hear the council's leader Frank Macavity call on the Government to accept more refugees. Glasgow University is also to be congratulated for introducing a series of measures to support refugee students, including fee waivers and the extension of the institution's talent scholarship scheme to support refugee undergraduates and postgraduate students. However, we need to do more. We need to do more as UK citizens and as a European citizen. The European Union was founded on the values of respect for human dignity and the protection of human rights. Therefore, we need to establish an agreement between the European member states and take more positive measures to tackle the crisis of putting people's lives at risk to get to Europe, as well as addressing the plight of those who are suffering in Calais and the other countries mentioned earlier and those who are displaced within their own country. Earlier this week, we heard the president of the European Council at the UN General Assembly to reassure that Europe is as committed to its values and objectives now as it has ever been, and every single one of us needs to ensure that we are committed to those values and objectives as members of the European Union. However, it is shared responsibility among all states, and no single country can solve a crisis of that scale. However, the responsibility to solve the crisis does not just lie within Europe. It is a global crisis and it requires a global response. In conclusion, the international community must come together and provide a global response to the on-going refugee crisis, as we cannot turn our backs on people who are seeking refuge from war in their home country. I, too, congratulate my friend James Donan for bringing this debate before Parliament. Like other members, I appreciate the heartfelt way in which he urged all of us, both within and outwith this chamber, to take action to protect asylum seekers and refugees across Europe. The debate recognises, as other speakers have highlighted, the fact that we are witnessing the largest mass movement of people since the Second World War. According to the Scottish Refugee Council, 60 million women, children and men have been displaced as they flee persecution, conflict, war, violence and human rights violations. In half of the 60 million people displaced are women and girls. 86 per cent of the world's refugees are hosted by developing regions. Countries such as Pakistan, Lebanon and Turkey alone host three in every 10 of the world's refugees. The debate allows us to highlight the widespread public concern across Scotland at the global humanitarian and refugee crisis. All of us have been touched and moved by the harrowing images that we have seen in our newspapers and on our television screens. The generosity of the public has been seen in a myriad of ways as people reach out to offer help and assistance. Only last week I met with the teachers and pupils of South Morningside primary school in my constituency, who were so moved by the plight of refugees that they raised over £1,000 in one week. I would like to pay tribute to them for their outstanding efforts. Another example of the outpouring of public concern has been the response of the churches and faith-based organisations as they have responded to the humanitarian and refugee crisis. Pope Francis has called upon every Catholic parish community in Europe to offer support to refugee families who are currently fleeing to our continent from the Middle East. I was delighted to learn that some Columbus parish church in Newington has said that they will welcome a refugee family into their community and want to do all that they can to help. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the churches for the moral leadership that they have shown in demanding that Governments and people do all that they can to welcome refugees and asylum seekers to this country. Philip Tertallia, the Archbishop of Glasgow and President of the Bishops Conference of Scotland, wrote to the First Minister on 10 September, in that letter that he stated in support of his response and inspired by Pope Francis, I write to offer the assistance of the Bishops Conference of Scotland in any plans that may emerge in the months to come to support and assist the new arrivals to our country. Many of our parishioners hail from families with a history of fleeing conflict and poverty in the 19th and 20th centuries to find a new home in Scotland. In the subsequent decades, we have established an effective network of parishes that exists to promote the Christian faith and thus contribute to the common good. However, the generosity of the public response to the humanitarian crisis has not been matched by the actions of the UK Government in accepting an appropriate number of refugees from the refugee camps. The UK Government did establish the Syrian vulnerable persons relocation scheme to resettle vulnerable Syrian refugees across the UK, but to date, only 216 people have been resettled in the UK. It is for that reason that I agree with the Edinburgh trade union council when they state that we consider that the UK Government's response to the crisis is woefully inadequate. I believe that the UK Government must do much more to meet the obligations to the most vulnerable people on the planet, but the greatest failure of the UK Government has been its determination to stand aside from the European Union's relocation scheme. If the European Union is committed to taking 160,000 refugees, should the UK not play its part in accepting its share of those refugees to our shores? The UK is a permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations, but its actions have destabilised the Middle East as a region. I believe that the UK has a moral obligation to do much more than it is currently committed to doing. Scotland is a national community and, as a society, stands ready, as we have always done, to open our doors and our hearts to welcome refugees into our country. Refugees and asylum seekers have enriched our society culturally, economically and socially over many decades. We look forward to playing a role as part of a co-ordinated European-wide response as we respond to the crisis and as we help people to rebuild their lives. Therefore, I look forward to welcoming those new Scots to our country and to them making a positive contribution to Scotland in the years ahead. Many thanks. Can I now invite the cabinet secretary to respond to the debate? Fiona Heslop, seven minutes please. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and thank you to James Dornan for bringing forward the motion for this afternoon's debate. The issue is not new, but the sheer scale, the importance and the impact of this crisis demands both a public and a political response locally, nationally and internationally. It is also generated, as we have heard, a very personal response. I was very struck by the remarks of James Dornan about the young boy in the red hoodie. That response has been felt, I think, across our constituencies and across our constituencies. We have heard from Christian Arlard, Strant Sandra White and James Eadie there, and I am at-taggared about the personal contributions that people have been making in their communities. However, that is not to say that there is unanimity amongst the entire population about the moral imperative to act, and we know that that is not the case. Therefore, it makes it all the more important that all of us continue to make that case. The fact that more than 1,000 offers— I am sure that the cabinet secretary would accept that Scotland, in general, in terms of accepting the crisis of the refugees with a remarkable heart and remarkable direction and wanting to do something—is pretty important, in terms of what integration measures will be available, particularly to bring awareness-raising to the various communities across Scotland, not just where the refugees themselves will be potentially based, but across Scotland, so that we can raise awareness of the people of Scotland about the sheer scale of challenge that those people have faced. I think that that is a very important point. We are in this for the long term and the long haul, and we all have to be prepared for that event. The fact that more than 1,000 offers of help have already been received by the Scotland welcomes refugees website and that all 32 of our local authorities have pledged their support to bring Syrian refugees to Scotland and to integrate them into our communities is testament that Scotland stands willing and is able to step up to the plate to help none more so than the organisations referred to in the motion. My colleague Alex Neil, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Communities and Pensions, has made clear in the debate on the refugee crisis on 15 September that the Scottish Government should be doing what we can to help people who have made their way at enormous risk to mainland Europe. The First Minister and the Minister for Europe and International Development reiterated that message when they met Philip Hammond, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on 21 September. The Deputy First Minister delivered the same message in Brussels on the same day. Although asylum remains a matter reserved to the UK Government, the Scottish Government believes that asylum and refugee resettlement into the EU from third countries are areas that require multilateral and collective action by the EU. The EU must take collective responsibility and exert the leadership that was referred to in Malcolm Chisholm in his contribution. On my part, I have raised the need for solidarity and support for rescue and refuge of people from the southern borders of the Mediterranean regularly with the UK Government since the Lampedusa tragedy many years ago. The Scottish Government remains firmly committed to continuing to press the UK Government to sign up to measures that will protect vulnerable refugees from harm and ease the burden on countries that are most affected, as we have heard in particular, by participating fully in proposed EU action, such as on relocation and resettlement. The UK Government did not vote, as we have heard, in the emergency EU justice and home affairs committee meeting on the crisis on 22 September, as it is continuing to refuse to opt in to the relocation scheme. However, they were initially not prepared to take more than a handful of Syrian refugees, so we know that they can change. However, political energy and effort should be spent on supporting those in need and not soaked up by seeking to shift the intransigence of the UK Government. I am not sure whether he meant to do so. It seemed to indicate that the UK's interest of self-interest of security was driving the response, not about sympathy, solidarity and support. That is of serious concern. At the meeting on 22 September, the EU members agreed to relocate 120,000 of the desperate people who have reached Europe. The Scottish Government believes that the UK should take a share of this group too, as well as those from Syria. Of course, it is welcome that the UK Government has increased their aid to camps in the region to £1 billion, making them the second largest donor there. We do not dispute that there is an urgent need to provide aid in the region, as well as to work internationally to try and resolve the current circumstances that are driving the mass movement of humanity. However, it is not an either or. We can make sure that the support in the region is signed up to relocation within the EU, and that is what the Parliament wants. We do not agree that the UK is doing all that it can, and we will continue to press that message home. There is much in the EU's agenda that the Scottish Government can support, including its focus on taking action to save lives in the Mediterranean, the recognition that migration to Europe is a complex global issue with its roots in third countries and the understanding that European co-operation, not isolation, is key. We strongly support a controlled and managed migration system, and it is essential that we work with our EU neighbours on a shared approach to those challenges that that migration affects. What we are seeing is almost unprecedented in terms of the mass movement of desperate, vulnerable people, risking life and limb to get to places where they believe they can be safe. We are very lucky to be able to live our lives free from such desperation. We have our own challenges in Scotland, but we have successfully accepted and integrated thousands of refugees into our communities over recent years. My colleague the Minister for European International Development visited Glasgow, the Caring City, on Monday with James Dornan. I know that he was amazed at the generosity shown by members of the public who have so willingly donated what they can to help others in need. He will be visiting Lesbos this weekend to see at first hand the excellent work that the aid agencies are carrying out in very difficult and harrowing circumstances. Members will, I am sure, welcome the announcement by Hamza Yousaf earlier today that £300,000 from the Scottish Government is being provided to support humanitarian work in southern Europe, carried out by the British Red Cross and Mercy Corps, and to provide additional resources to Edinburgh Direct Aid and Glasgow, the Caring City, referred to in the motion. These moments in human history can define nations. I am sure that I speak for all members when I say that I want Scotland to be defined by our compassionate human response to this crisis, by our strong leadership on the international stage and by the warmth of the welcome that we can and will provide to all those who come to our country to escape unimaginable horrors. Many thanks, cabinet secretary. That concludes James Dornan's debate on taking action to protect asylum seekers and refugees across Europe. I point out to members before I close the earlier than usual start, and I now suspend this meeting until 2.15 pm.