This is About More Than Just Ukraine

When Tynwald sits today, there will be a lot of thought given to the motion from the Chief Minister about the island supporting Ukraine and, in particular, what will be done to support Ukrainian refugees.

However, on both March and April’s order papers, there are motions from Manx Labour Party leader Joney Faragher which relate to refugees, both from Ukraine and further afield.

Speaking to Gef, Ms Faragher said her April motion comes from her belief that exploring what the island to do to support refugees from anywhere in the world is ‘part of our international obligations’.

She added: ‘We already pay out a far lower amount than the UN recommends for overseas aid and we are in the middle of a humanitarian crisis at the moment so I felt like it was a good time to raise awareness of the issue, now that people are having those conversations about how they want to help people fleeing war-torn countries.’

March

Looking at her motion for March first, Ms Faragher will move that: ‘Tynwald believes that, in the current crisis, visa restrictions for families of Ukrainian nationals living in the island should be waived’.

The Douglas East MHK said that depending on what the Chief Minister says regarding refugees and the support that will be on offer, she may withdraw her motion if she feels this is properly addressed by the Chief’s statement and subsequent motion. 

That motion reads: ‘That Tynwald supports Ukrainian sovereignty, democracy, independence and territorial integrity; condemns the Russian invasion of Ukraine; is committed to fully supporting international sanctions against Russia; and further supports the protection of refugees and humanitarian relief in Ukraine.’

April

However, Ms Faragher’s April motion, which calls on CoMin to report by the end of July as to what more the island can do to support refugees from around the world and look at what can be done in conjunction with both the UK and Irish governments to achieve this. 

People who raise concerns about our ability to home refugees often say the island has a Foodbank, has couch surfers, has families struggling to get by and that this amounts to proof we can’t look after our own, let alone anyone else.

However, Ms Faragher said while it is right to highlight these issues, it doesn’t mean the island can’t support refugees. 

She said: ‘I hope that people would agree that I am working as hard as can on those issues as well and they’re not mutually exclusive. It’s a major point I feel that I need to make, we can have compassion for our own people and try to resolve social and poverty issues, alongside having compassion for people who aren’t from our country, it works for other countries, for other jurisdictions.’

Flip the Script

Instead of looking at solely what the island can do to help refugees, Ms Faragher said we should look at it the other way round and think what could refugees do to help the island. She said: ‘We are crying out for economically active people, people who want to have families here, it doesn’t have to be a one way street, there is a mutually beneficial outcome.’

An Exploration, Not a Decision

While the previous administration seemingly worked hard to find reasons why the island couldn’t accept refugees when the issue was raised around Syrians fleeing the war in their country, Ms Faragher said with a changing of the guard, there hopefully has been a change of attitudes.

She said: ‘I think that this government has been a more progressive administration than the previous one was, so, therefore, I am hoping that my motion will fall on more responsive ears. Time will tell with that.

‘I think it was around November 2019 when the motion was brought over Syria, it was defeated by the narrowest margin in a government that was less progressive so I am very much hoping that this fall on more responsive ears and I do feel like there’s maybe a bit more will there. I’m not saying the previous administration’s reasons were incorrect, it’s just that they were maybe more problem-orientated whereas we can look to be more solution-orientated.’

Celtic Nations or Manxit?

One area Ms Faragher’s motion looks at is working more closely with Ireland on the issue of refugees. However, the UK is, through our position as a Crown Dependency, responsible for our external affairs. But Ms Fargaher said there needs to be ‘a bit more imagination here’ in terms of working with our Celtic neighbours. 

She said: ‘People say “oh we can’t do that because of this”, well really it’s that we can’t do that because it is our current setup. That doesn’t mean that it is an immutable principle set in our constitution, all it means is that is what our current setup is.

‘We do need to have a little bit of boldness and willingness to ask is this working for us? Is this working for us in terms of the direction the UK is heading in with their Nationality and Borders Bill, making it such a hostile environment, is that the way we want to move forward as a jurisdiction? What is the public opinion on that? How is Ireland going? Is that something we want to link up closer ties with Ireland because actually, their immigration policy is more in line with ours? Because there is no reason why we can’t.’

The MLP leader said that there is no particular reason why the Isle of Man should stay wedded to the UK, particularly given our shared culture and history with Ireland and that the matter is one that could be explored by islanders in the future. She said: ‘We are a Celtic nation, there is no reason why we shouldn’t align with Celtic nations who are our neighbours.’

April Motion

Ms Faraghers April motion is: ‘That Tynwald is of the opinion that arrangements should be put in place to enable the Island to take in refugees; that the Council of Ministers should explore how this could be achieved and should submit a report to Tynwald by the last day of July 2022; and that as part of the preparation of that report, evidence should be sought from the Governments of the UK and Ireland as to what it would take to allow the Island to participate in resettlement schemes operated by those nations.’