Sudan: Government Response

Kim Johnson Excerpts

Monday 22nd April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mitchell]

In respect of my right hon. Friend’s final point, we are hopeful that the third set of negotiations in Jeddah will take place. The Saudis committed on 15 April to that happening in early May, and we are extremely grateful to the Saudis for that and for inviting the UAE, Egypt, the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development to be part of the negotiations. The former Chairman of the Defence Committee is right about the danger of contagion across the region. We are doing everything we can to support Abdalla Hamdok and the Taqaddum, as I mentioned earlier. In terms of our support within Sudan, the ambassador is currently based in Addis Ababa and is working energetically with all the relevant parties to try to make progress.

[Kim Johnson (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab)]

The Sudanese community in Liverpool, Riverside, will be decidedly underwhelmed by the Minister’s response to this urgent question. He mentioned supporting people moving to neighbouring areas, but he did not mention the Sudanese who have lived, worked and contributed for years to the UK bringing over family members who are fleeing the conflict, or extending student visas or protections for Sudanese asylum seekers. What will it take for the UK to provide a visa programme for Sudanese asylum seekers, similar to the Ukrainian scheme?

[Mr Mitchell]

The two situations are not analogous. If the Labour party wants to launch a campaign for extra visas and a special scheme matching the one in Ukraine, I look forward to hearing details of it.

Israel and Gaza

Kim Johnson Excerpts

Tuesday 26th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mitchell]

I simply do not recognise the right hon. Gentleman’s description of resolution 2728. It is Hamas who are using the Palestinian people as a human shield in the grotesque way that we see in Rafah.

[Kim Johnson (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab)]

I welcome the UN Security Council finally calling for an immediate ceasefire, as well as for the return of all hostages, including Palestinian children who are in military prisons. The Minister must now indicate what enforcement measures the Government will implement to escalate the pressure to stop Israel’s military assault, uphold the ceasefire, and ensure that emergency assistance is provided through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency to those being starved to death.

[Mr Mitchell]

I thank the hon. Lady for her support for UN resolution 2728, which, as I set out in the statement, reflects widespread international support for Britain’s position and the very considerable efforts by our diplomats to secure a consensus.

Israel and Palestine

Kim Johnson Excerpts

Monday 11th December 2023 Westminster Hall

[Kim Johnson (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab)]

It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Mark. I thank the petitioners for bringing the debate here today. I want to start by condemning the atrocities that took place on 7 October and by calling for the immediate release of the hostages. However, since the atrocities on 7 October, the world has watched as massacres, bombardments, starvation and communal punishment continue to be levelled against innocent Palestinian civilians. Homes, schools and hospitals have turned into rubble. The collective punishment of the Palestinian people is a crime against humanity and in violation of international humanitarian law. Israel’s refusal to allow water, fuel, electricity, food and medical supplies to reach people under unprecedented assault is unjustifiable.

Save the Children has said that if the children in Gaza

“are not killed by the bombardments, they will be killed by hunger. If they are not killed by hunger, they will be killed by disease.”

One Palestinian dies every five minutes, but that could have been averted if the US and the UK had voted in favour of the Security Council resolution for a ceasefire. That would have ended the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians and the mass displacement of Gazans towards the south of the strip, which is threatening to push them into the Sinai, in the biggest land grab and ethnic cleansing since the original Nakba in 1948.

A child who is 16 years old in Gaza today will have known five successive bombing campaigns and spent their entire life under blockade. The sheer level of trauma, pain and grief that they have already experienced is almost unspeakable. All of us who bear witness to these crimes have a duty to speak up, and those of us with the privilege of power have a duty to do everything humanly possible to end them.

This weekend, traumatising images that emerged from Jabalia refugee camp were widely reported. Palestinian men were stripped naked, bound and blindfolded by Israeli forces, invoking images from some of the darkest passages of our history. The International Federation of Journalists, working closely with the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, has verified that at least 70 journalists have been killed in the violence, with many others missing and feared dead. It has said that journalists are dying at four times the rate of the general population. These journalists are all that stands between the truth and a total media blackout in Gaza; they should never be a target, yet the numbers reveal a very concerning picture.

I echo the calls from the National Union of Journalists to pay tribute to the bravery of journalists in Gaza and to their commitment to their work. Without them, we would not be able to hold the Israeli Government to account for the horrors unfolding in Gaza.

Time and again, we have heard from Ministers that they are, in no uncertain terms, pushing Israel to take precautions, to act within the confines of international humanitarian law and to show restraint and care for civilian infrastructure and life. However, on his media round this morning, the Defence Secretary failed to condemn the detention of Palestinian children in military prisons.

[Afzal Khan]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Kim Johnson]

No, I am sorry. I am going to make some progress.

We know that that will not happen without meaningful international action to ensure that Israel cannot continue to act with impunity. The UN Secretary-General has invoked article 99 of the founding UN charter, formally warning the Security Council of the global threat from the attack on Gaza. A ceasefire is the bare minimum we must demand, yet our Government have failed in their humanity. How many more innocent Palestinians have to die before the leadership of this country takes action?

To conclude, our Government urgently need to move towards a permanent ceasefire. We must also go further and take bold steps to end the cycle of violence, including the indiscriminate killings of Palestinians in the west bank by right-wing extremist settlers. The ICC must investigate potential war crimes by all parties and bring to justice those who are found guilty. History will not judge kindly those who looked away. We must do everything in our power to bring these atrocities to an urgent end with a permanent ceasefire.

Violence in the West Bank

Kim Johnson Excerpts

Tuesday 4th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. He is right that, when this violence occurs, the great tragedy is that civilians are caught up in it, especially where the Israeli Defence Forces are legitimately trying to defend themselves and, indeed, Palestinians from the terrorist threat. The Foreign Secretary continues to have a strong focus on this and we are working with leaders and our allies around the world to try to find a solution.

[Kim Johnson (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab)]

The Minister mentioned that the Government have urged the Israeli Defence Forces to demonstrate restraint and have urged de-escalation to protect civilians, but actions speak louder than words. Can the Minister say what it will take for the Government to suspend arms sales to Israel until we can be sure that they are not being used to violate international law and perpetrate war crimes and human rights abuses? I would appreciate it if the Minister could give a well-thought-out answer to the question, instead of referring to pre-scripted notes in a folder.

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

I will continue to state the fact that these violent activities are ongoing and colleagues are in discussions right now with Israeli counterparts. I do not wish to disturb those discussions in any way. I am here to update the House on as much as we know. It is an ongoing situation, but I know that when my colleague Lord Ahmad responds to an urgent question later in the day, he will have more information to share in the other place.

Yemen: Humanitarian Situation and Children’s Rights

Kim Johnson Excerpts

Tuesday 9th May 2023 Westminster Hall

[Carol Monaghan]

The hon. Gentleman highlights the very nub of the debate. It is not just that the money is not going in; one of the big issues is that non-governmental organisations on the ground are struggling to be in Yemen. We need proper international dialogue to get aid in and reverse some of the aspects that he has highlighted.

[Kim Johnson (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab)]

Liverpool, Riverside has a long-established Yemeni community, and Habibti has been funding a children’s hospital in Sanaa for many years. Given that Britain has earned eight times more from arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition than it has spent on aid to help civilians—particularly children—caught up in the conflict, does the hon. Member agree that the UK’s role in this war is a dark stain on our foreign policy?

[Carol Monaghan]

I thank the hon. Member for that intervention. I will come on to the arms trade with Saudi Arabia and Britain’s role in that, but we cannot just be seen as a benevolent overseer here. The UK actually has its fingers in the pie in Yemen, and it is certainly not helping to broker peace while it is still arming the Saudi-led coalition.

Coming back to the subject of girl brides, according to Girls Not Brides, many girls in Yemen have been married off as a source of income during the conflict as families are driven deeper into poverty and desperation. There have also been reports of girls being trafficked through so-called tourist marriages with wealthy men from the Arab Gulf region for the purpose of sexual exploitation. These people are desperate, and it is unfortunately the most vulnerable who will suffer. Currently, 9% of Yemeni girls are married by the age of 15, and nearly a third are married by their 18th birthday.

However, the war does not just affect girls; it casts its lethal shadow over the entire nation. Landmines and unexploded ordnance have killed and continue to kill hundreds of children, and instability has resulted in the internal displacement of 3.2 million people. According to UNICEF, one child in Yemen dies from preventable causes every 10 minutes; during the course of this debate, another six children in Yemen will have died needlessly.

The situation on the ground is devastating. Children’s rights to life, food, security and basic healthcare are under threat. Against this backdrop, the UK Government stand by their decision to cut official development assistance funding from 0.7% of GNI to 0.5%—in doing so, slashing aid to the most vulnerable. In 2020, the UK pledged £214 million in aid to Yemen; this year, that figure is only £88 million. In 2020, when the ODA cut was initially enacted, many colleagues across the House—a number of them are here in the Chamber—deemed it inhumane and hoped the policy would be short-lived. It certainly seems inconsistent with this Government’s eagerness to project a global Britain that defends universal human rights, supports conflict resolution and tackles extreme deprivation. Three years on, this unethical aid cut remains, and global Britain seems no more than empty rhetoric. I am aware that, alongside the US and Germany, the UK is one of the major contributors of aid to Yemen—I will say that—but we are providing far less than we did previously. The longer the shortfall is maintained, the slower and more limited our humanitarian reach in Yemen will be. According to the former UN emergency relief co-ordinator, Sir Mark Lowcock, “there is no question” but that the decision to cut ODA has increased civilian loss of life in the country.

The UK’s desire to be a force for good must be underwritten by concrete action, and it demands that we do more. If inadequate humanitarian funding is one moral failing, the Government’s decision to arm the Saudi-led coalition is another. Air strikes by the coalition have hit hundreds of civilian targets. The Saudi air campaign alone has killed around 9,000 civilians, including hundreds of children, which has elicited strong condemnation from the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres.

Sudan

Kim Johnson Excerpts

Monday 17th April 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mitchell]

There is every danger of that happening as a result of the disorder and chaos that we are witnessing. My right hon. Friend asks if there is any ideological rift between the two generals who are perpetrating this warfare. As the right hon. Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn) pointed out, the conflict is characterised by two powerful men fighting it out for power.

[Kim Johnson (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab)]

I join colleagues from across the House in condemning the atrocities taking place in Sudan. Given that more than 100 civilians have already lost their lives, including three aid workers, and the conflict shows no sign of easing, will the Minister set out what steps the UK will take as the penholder for Sudan at the UN Security Council, including some specific actions?

[Mr Mitchell]

As I said earlier, the United Nations is meeting today. We are the penholder at the United Nations and we will be pressing all parties to lay down their weapons. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development—IGAD—has issued a statement about its efforts to de-escalate the situation and restore calm. In addition, there is the work of the Quad, which the Foreign Secretary spoke about this morning, and the Troika—Norway, the United States and Britain. All these entities, of which Britain is a key part, are fundamentally engaged in trying to bring the conflict to a close.

Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Kim Johnson Excerpts

Thursday 23rd March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

As I say, we are appalled by the continuing and increasing terror attacks, which are injuring both Israelis and Palestinians. We continue to share our concerns and support those who are working towards a peaceful resolution.

[Kim Johnson (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab)]

The Minister has mentioned repeatedly the need for a de-escalation of violence. However, since the election of the most right-wing Government in Israel’s history, human rights violations have increased significantly, including the deaths of innocent children. Settlements in the occupied west bank are illegal, and the eviction of Palestinians from their homes causes unnecessary suffering and calls into question the Israeli Government’s commitment to a viable two-state solution. Will the Minister outline how she intends to ensure the Israeli Government abide by their obligations under international law? No warm words—actions speak louder than words.

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

As I say, the UK Government continue to ask all parties to take urgent measures to reduce tensions and de-escalate. Since the beginning of the year, both the Foreign Secretary and Lord Ahmad have spoken to many influential international partners working alongside us who have a stake in calming this very difficult situation.

Turkey and Syria Earthquake

Kim Johnson Excerpts

Tuesday 7th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[James Cleverly]

On my hon. Friend’s specific question about the size of the medical response team, I do not have that figure at the moment. It is inevitable that the numbers—both, sadly, of fatalities and injuries, and of British experts that we put in to support—will change over time. Indeed, I strongly suspect that the figures I outlined at the Dispatch Box at the start of the statement are now, sadly, already out of date. I completely take the point that he and others have made about the need for accurate, ongoing and timely information, and I will endeavour to make sure that I provide that to all Members of the House.

[Kim Johnson (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab)]

I send my thoughts and condolences to all those who have suffered and lost loved ones in the tragedy in Syria and Turkey. This horrific disaster does not discriminate in its victims, and political obstacles must not be allowed to define who receives our support. Can the Secretary of State explain what he is doing to secure humanitarian corridors to ensure all Syrians receive humanitarian aid, and will he respond to appeals for more heavy lifting equipment and fuel to run those machines?

[James Cleverly]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right that disasters like this do not discriminate, and neither will we. We will work closely with the United Nations. Obviously, we do not have a relationship with the Assad Government in Syria, but notwithstanding that, we will work with those organisations—whether the White Helmets, the United Nations or others—that are on the ground in Syria. Of course, we will also work closely with the Turkish Government in response to that.

The Execution of Alireza Akbari

Kim Johnson Excerpts

Monday 16th January 2023 Commons Chamber

[James Cleverly]

My hon. Friend is right to pay tribute to the strong and clear stance that the House has taken in response to the brutality meted out by the Iranian regime. I assure him and the House that we will continue to work cross-Department, and internationally, on the most effective ways of curtailing Iran’s malign activity, both within Iran, in the region and globally.

[Kim Johnson (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab)]

I send my sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of Mr Akbari. The use of the death penalty is appalling under all circumstances, as are the practices of torture and prolonged solitary confinement, all of which Mr Akbari was subjected to while being held by the Iranian authorities. Amnesty has called for the UK Government to work with international bodies to fully investigate Mr Akbari’s allegations of torture and all other ill treatment, and to pursue the criminal investigation of officials reasonably suspected of involvement in crimes under international law. Will the Foreign Secretary today agree to take up those calls for justice?

[James Cleverly]

I assure the hon. Lady that we will not rest until this regime is held to account for the brutality and atrocities that it has meted out to its own people, and we will do so in close co-operation with our friends in the international community.

Bhopal Gas Explosion Investigations

Kim Johnson Excerpts

Tuesday 15th November 2022 Westminster Hall

[Kim Johnson (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. I start by thanking my hon. Friend the Member for Stockport (Navendu Mishra) for securing this important debate, and by putting on record thanks to my union, Unison, for all its work to support the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal and the victims and survivors of that devastating incident.

That tragedy—the world’s greatest industrial disaster—exposed half a million people to toxic gas, with around 25,000 deaths to date as a result of that exposure. I also commend Rajkumar Keswani, who tried tirelessly to highlight the site’s health and safety dangers well before the tragedy took place. I do not want to reiterate what my hon. Friend has already mentioned but, suffice it to say, all this should not have happened: the deaths of thousands of people from immediate exposure to the chemical gas from the Union Carbide factory; the tens of thousands who lost their lives in indescribable circumstances since; and the hundreds of thousands suffering to this day with debilitating and deadly illnesses and diseases. Those responsible must be brought to justice.

This is a case of criminal corporate negligence, aided in the evasion of scrutiny and justice by Governments that protect profits and power over the people they are supposed to serve. The strength and bravery of campaigners in the pursuit of justice against the odds have been incredible. They should have the support and solidarity of every Member who stands for truth, justice and accountability.

Although the chemical explosion happened in 1984, nearly four decades ago, this living, breathing crisis is still creating new victims. It has created untold suffering for those who suffered the immediate impact, their children and their grandchildren, with the impact on future generations casting a dark shadow over the community. Rates of cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, autism and severe learning difficulties have exploded, and the situation is getting worse, not better. Hundreds of thousands are still suffering in pain, through cancer, stillbirths, miscarriages, lung and heart disease, and the slow and painful deaths of the families and communities, with no respite, support, compensation or justice.

The poison is still pumping through the veins of the survivors and their children. Even now, decades later, the mortality rate for gas-exposed victims is still 28% higher than average. Victims of the gas are twice as likely to die from cancers, lung disease and TB; three times more likely to die from kidney diseases; and more than 60% more likely to have serious illnesses. Rates of infertility, stillbirths, abortions, early menopause, and fertility have been disastrous, with immense social repercussions.

Those long-term health impacts are devastating, yet the meagre compensation paid out to victims after years of campaigning, amounts to little more than three and a half years of healthcare bills. Not one single arrest has been made. No one has been forced to help alleviate the ongoing environmental destruction, and the communities there are still forced to live in poisoned surroundings—forced to consume contaminated water, breathe poisoned air and live in areas still covered in toxic chemicals. No clean-up operation has ever been attempted.

Of the nine Indian officials who were convicted in 2010 for their role, none has served any time behind bars. No one from Union Carbide has ever been jailed for the gross negligence that led to the gas explosion, and the company has repeatedly refused to face justice and answer its court summonses. We all know that justice delayed is justice denied.

I will end by paying tribute to the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, and to everyone who has campaigned for a just response and settlement for the victims, and taken up their cause. Appropriate compensation—at a minimum of $8,000—must be made to each Bhopal survivor. Union Carbide must finally attend the criminal court case in Bhopal district that it has dodged for nearly a decade. The companies involved must hand over their findings and all studies on the effects of the methyl isocyanate, and the results of their investigations into the contamination of soil and groundwater in and around the Bhopal factory.

The Indian national and state governments must provide free healthcare to survivors, and fund research into the long-term health damage caused by exposure to toxic gas and contaminated groundwater. They must provide living costs for the survivors and widows of the disaster. Union Carbide must also take responsibility for cleaning the remaining hazardous waste, in line with international standards, and provide compensation for environmental health damages.

That is the bare minimum that we should be demanding for the survivors of the tragedy, whose lives have been torn apart. Criminal negligence has destroyed their lives and those of their children, grandchildren and future generations. They have already waited nearly 40 years. We cannot allow justice to be denied any longer.