We are failing Ukrainian refugees

Almost every country in Europe has temporarily dropped the VISA requirement for Ukrainian refugees. The reason for that is obvious. With more than 2 million refugees having fled Ukraine, this is now the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War.

If every country required refugees from Ukraine to go through a lengthy and bureaucratic visa application process before being allowed in those 2 million refugees would still be in Ukraine, stuck at the borders or unable to move on from Poland, Hungary and other bordering countries that are now struggling to cope with the numbers they have received.  That is why on the whole, Europe has done the right thing and taken a humanitarian approach to this crisis – giving refuge to any Ukrainian who requires it and tackling administrative issues later. But there is one country that has taken a different approach – the UK.

Backed by both the Government and the Labour front bench, the UK is limiting the Ukrainian refugees we are willing to take to those who already have family in the UK and forcing many to apply for visas via overrun application centres abroad. That is why of the 2 million Ukrainian refugees across Europe, the UK had only granted 1,000 visas. That’s 0.05% of the total.

As with the Afghanistan and Syrian refugee crises before this, the UK is failing to play its part and help a fair share of those in need. No amount of ‘streamlining’ or ‘speeding up’ the visa application process can fix that. There is only one solution that is morally right. We must drop the visa application process for Ukrainian refugees and all other refugees fleeing war. The country wants to help, it’s time the Government let us.

Labour’s plan to keep energy bill low in Edmonton

The current energy crisis is the final nail in the coffin for the privatisation of our energy sector.

In private hands, the energy sector has succeeded at only one thing – increasing the profits of a few rich shareholders. It has failed at almost everything else – from planning for the rise of wholesale energy prices, to delivering good customer service.

Now, while customers in the UK are seeing price rises so extreme that they are having to choose between eating and heating, the French public has seen just a 3% rise in their energy costs as the publicly-owned EDF energy continues to make profits from customers in the UK, allowing the French Government to keep down costs in their country.

The only long-lasting solution to this crisis is to end this crazy experiment and bring our energy sector back into public hands. But there are emergency measures that we could take now, even while private companies continue to profit from this crisis. That’s why Labour is planning to target extra support on top of the already £200 promised to most households.  Extra support that could save more than 29,000 households in Edmonton up to £600 off their bills in total. That is a good temporary solution and one that would help many families across Edmonton. But in the end, we will all continue to be ripped off as long as we allow a rich elite to continue running their energy racket.

How I voted this week

This week I voted for Labour’s amendments to the Government’s Economic Crime Bill. These amendments would have enabled action to be taken now while the Government seems to want to give oligarchs months to escape justice.

The Government have dragged their feet on stopping dirty money flowing through our economy, these steps were first promised in 2016, but the Government failed to act. Although I voted for the Bill, as it is a step in the right direction, as Labour amendments failed to pass, it sadly doesn’t go far enough.

It will do nothing to stop dodgy companies hiding their ill-gotten gains in our economy. That is why I voted for amendments to the Bill that would have increased the fines levelled at sanctioned individuals and sped up the sanctioning process so that those targeted wouldn’t have had a chance to hide their wealth and escape punishment. Unfortunately, those amendments didn’t pass and the Government’s light-touch approach to Russian Oligarchs is set to continue.

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Thank you for taking the time to read my latest update, if you have any issues that you would like to raise directly with me then please do email  edmontonconstituency@parliament.uk. I’m always happy to help whenever possible.

Kind regards,

Kate Osamor MP