To ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister to detail any engagement they have had with stakeholders on the development of the refugee integration strategy.

We are delighted that the draft Refugee Integration Strategy is currently out for public consultation and recognise the critical importance of this strategy at a time when our asylum seeker and refugee population is increasing.

The development of the draft Strategy has been directly informed by a range of stakeholders including through the TEO commissioned research on the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers and more recently the outcome from the strategic insight lab on the long term integration of all refugees.

The research included input from a range of service providers, voluntary organisations/host communities as well as asylum seekers and refugees.

The Strategic Insight lab brought together key stakeholders from a wide range of sectors, including representatives from the community and voluntary sectors including a number of refugees, civil servants working in both operational delivery and policy making roles, academics, representatives of local government, statutory partners and User groups, and observers from other jurisdictions.

To sense check the proposals, representatives from a small number of organisations working directly to support refugees and asylum seekers have provided input as ‘critical friends’ throughout the process. Input was also sought from all Executive departments given their responsibilities and critical role in implementation.

The public consultation will provide further valuable input from a wide range of stakeholders and includes engagement directly with asylum seekers and refugees to ensure their voices are at the heart of the final Strategy which we will bring to the Executive for agreement.