Asked by: Baroness Sheehan (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to support less economically developed countries to remove all financial barriers to healthcare to deliver free testing and treatment for COVID-19.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The UK champions universal health coverage (UHC) as vital to ensuring access to quality essential health services for all and helping to protect everyone from infectious diseases, including COVID-19. UHC includes ensuring that no one is impoverished through paying for health services and reducing financial barriers to access especially for the poorest and most vulnerable. Our programmes help poor and vulnerable people to meet food and other basic needs including direct and indirect costs of health care, such as transport so they can access essential health services.
The UK has, so far, pledged £764 million of UK aid to help end the COVID-19 pandemic, in support of the coordinated international response through the international financing institutions, multilaterals and global health initiatives, and DFID programmes. This is to meet the urgent health, humanitarian and economic needs of vulnerable people in developing countries. This funding includes up to £40 million to the Wellcome Therapeutics Accelerator and up to £23 million to the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, both of which are central to efforts to accelerate development and access to new COVID-19 treatments and tests.
Asked by: Baroness Sheehan (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what proportion of the £744 million in aid they have committed to address COVID-19 has been allocated to provide frontline assistance to less economically developed countries.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
We have committed up to £764 million of UK aid funding to date, to support global efforts to combat COVID-19.
This includes up to £296 million to support and enhance resilience in vulnerable countries, encompassing:
We have also provided up to £150 million of UK aid funding to the IMF’s Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust to help developing countries meet their debt repayments so that they can focus their available resources on tackling COVID-19.
Asked by: Baroness Sheehan (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, through the UN, to reinforce the need for formal registration documents for each child so that in times of crisis children with no fixed household can be identified.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The Government is committed to supporting efforts to meet Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 which aims to provide legal identity for all, including birth registration, by 2030. The Government continues to advocate for the issuance of civil documentation in specific post-conflict countries through UN mechanisms, including the Security Council Working Group for Children and Armed Conflict.
Last year DFID approved a four-year £15 million Digital Identity as an Enabler for Development programme to support the World Bank Group’s Identification for Development initiative to implement trusted, secure, universal and inclusive digital Identification and civil registration systems from birth to death in over 40 countries.
Children on the Move is a DFID-funded 3-year programme (2017-2020) working with UNICEF to help children on the move in Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan. In Somalia the work includes providing children with a legal identity, without which they are at a greater risk of family separation, trafficking and illegal adoption. In 2019, 101,300 children were provided with legal identity documents including a birth certificate.
As well as this, some of the £30 million which DFID is providing to the Global Financing Facility (GFF) supports birth registration in DRC, Kenya, Liberia, Rwanda and Uganda.
Asked by: Baroness Sheehan (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to educate and inform Rohingya refugees in the Kutupalong Camp about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is reaching refugees with information and support to reduce rumours, myths, fear and panic about COVID-19, through the Communications with Communities Working Group. This includes a large array of methods to disseminate messages to refugees and the host community including community meetings where possible; radio, posters and leaflets, videos, loudspeakers and information service centres. Messages are being endorsed by the Cox’s Bazar Civil Surgeon, translated into the Rohingya language and Bangla, and are being developed in consultation with Rohingya people, including religious leaders, to ensure they are effective. Child-friendly messaging is also being used.
Asked by: Baroness Sheehan (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any to provide additional support to Rohingya children in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is working with partners to support and protect Rohingya children whose parents or care-givers become sick or die from COVID-19. This includes identifying temporary carers within the same camp block for children at risk of being left alone. These efforts are building on existing foster and child protection systems and will increase the number of Child Protection Volunteers within the Rohingya community in the camps. Although schools in the camps are closed, every effort will be made to get them up and running again as quickly as possible, and to ensure children return to education.
Asked by: Baroness Sheehan (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the availability of aid workers in the Kutupalong refugee camp; and what action, if any, they are taking as a result.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Cox’s Bazar District, where the Rohingya refugee camps are located, is subject to lockdown measures to help prevent the transmission of COVID-19. In addition, on World Health Organization advice, the Bangladeshi Government has instructed a reduction in humanitarian activity to an agreed list of critical (lifesaving) services. This means that fewer aid workers than normal are entering the refugee camps. For example, essential site management activities continue, but staff are reduced to 20% of their usual number. There are no education facilities open at the moment. However, critical UKAid funded services such as food and medical aid continue to be delivered to support the daily needs of refugees, including by refugee volunteers themselves. We consider this temporary reduction in staff accessing the camp a challenging, but important measure to try to prevent or at least delay the transmission of the virus in the camps. Social distancing arrangements have been put in place to prevent the possible spread of COVID-19 between humanitarian workers, and to provide medical care for those on the humanitarian frontline, coordinated by IOM. We are closely monitoring the situation, including access issues, and working with our humanitarian partners to best protect and prepare the Rohingya and host communities for an outbreak and to maintain critical services and assistance.
Asked by: Baroness Sheehan (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of child trafficking and child marriage in Rohingya refugee camps; and what action, if any, they are taking as a result.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Approximately 40% of trafficking survivors in the Rohingya refugee camps are children, predominantly girls. Girls are at risk of early marriage both within the camps and through trafficking.
Irregular movements are not new to Cox’s Bazar district or Bangladesh, which is on the US’ Tier 2 Watch List for Trafficking in Persons. The UK has contributed significantly to the protection sector within the humanitarian response, through partners including the International Organisation for Migration, UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the UN Children’s Fund. Our support helps to raise awareness about the risks of trafficking and build capacity among law enforcement to prevent it. UK funding also supports efforts to identify and provide direct assistance to victims of trafficking, such as safe shelters, psycho-social support, and social workers for children.
Asked by: Baroness Sheehan (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to help the boats of Rohingya refugees that have been turned away from Bangladesh and Malaysia.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are extremely concerned about the reports of hundreds of Rohingya still at sea and reports of failure to disembark vessels in distress. I have raised this with the Bangladesh Foreign Minister and with the Bangladesh High Commissioner in London. In addition, the British High Commission in Dhaka have raised this issue with the Government of Bangladesh. We continue to urge the Governments of Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and other governments in the region to assist boats carrying Rohingya refugees to land.
We are working with UN partners, including the International Organisation for Migration and UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), to find out more and provide live-saving action where possible. The UN are already providing shelter and assistance to survivors from the boat which reached Bangladesh on 16 April and stand ready to help any further refugees who make it ashore. We agree with UNHCR that there is a need for greater coordination and responsibility-sharing by states to address the maritime movements of refugees and asylum-seekers in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea. The UK is committed to protecting the Rohingya community, some of the world’s most vulnerable peoples.