Soma Oil & Gas: SFO Investigation

Debate between Lord Avebury and Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Monday 14th September 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Avebury]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures they intend to propose to the United Nations Security Council in the light of the Serious Fraud Office’s criminal investigation into Soma Oil and Gas Holdings, Soma Oil and Gas Exploration, Soma Management and others in relation to allegations of corruption in Somalia.

[The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Anelay of St Johns) (Con)]

My Lords, the Serious Fraud Office’s investigation into Soma Oil & Gas is an ongoing, independent investigation. It would not be appropriate to comment at this stage, nor to take any action on the basis of it. We are advising the federal Government of Somalia of the importance of establishing an effective legal and regulatory framework before signing oil or gas contracts, due to the high risks of corruption and conflict associated with the sector.

[Lord Avebury (LD)]

My Lords, Soma has contracts with the Government of Somalia giving it rights over 60,000 square kilometres of the continental shelf and creaming off up to 90% of the state’s oil revenues. Are the Government concerned that Soma paid civil servants advising on the deal a total of $360,000 and the so-called independent legal adviser another $500,000? When is the relevant Security Council committee due to consider the report on these payments, submitted to it on 3 August by the Somalia and Eritrea monitoring group?

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, on the first question, I perhaps did not make it clear enough in my first Answer that this matter is being investigated by the SFO, and investigated as the result of a leaked confidential document. In light of both those circumstances, it is not the practice of any Government to comment on such matters. On the noble Lord’s second question, I understand that the United Nations will discuss these matters again shortly.

Saudi Arabia: Raif Badawi

Debate between Lord Avebury and Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Thursday 11th June 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Avebury]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Saudi Arabia about the confirmation of a sentence of 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison against Raif Badawi.

[The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Anelay of St Johns) (Con)]

My Lords, we are extremely concerned about Raif Badawi’s case and have discussed it at the most senior levels in the Government of Saudi Arabia, most recently on 9 June. The Foreign Secretary discussed this case in February and March with the Saudi Minister of the Interior, His Royal Highness Mohammad bin Naif, now Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. The case is under active consideration and we will continue to watch it closely.

[Lord Avebury (LD)]

My Lords, when the first 50 lashes were administered to Mr Badawi, he needed medical attention. If the Saudi Supreme Court’s decision that he should undergo a further 19 sessions of 50 lashes each is carried into effect, it will amount to torture followed by death. Does my noble friend consider it appropriate for a state such as Saudi Arabia, which has barbarous and inhumane punishments on its statute book for trivial offences, to continue to be a member of the Human Rights Council, and will the UK take steps to have the country removed from that position?

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, I shall be attending the Human Rights Council early next week. I know that a wide range of issues will be raised but I have not yet seen any matter referring to the membership of any individual country. However, it is the view of the United Kingdom that the treatment of people in detention must be in line with the protocol on torture, to which, of course, Saudi Arabia is a signatory.

Syria and Iraq: Daesh

Debate between Lord Avebury and Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Thursday 19th March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Avebury]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the strategy of the United States-led coalition for clearing the Daesh out of the territories which they currently occupy in Syria and Iraq.

[The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Anelay of St Johns) (Con)]

My Lords, we are part of a global coalition with more than 60 members committing to defeating ISIL. We support inclusive governance in Iraq and Syria, work to counter ISIL’s vile narrative, its access to finance and foreign fighters, and provide military support to Iraqi forces fighting ISIL. The UK also provides humanitarian assistance to those affected by ISIL’s brutality and will contribute to the Syrian opposition train and equip programme.

[Lord Avebury (LD)]

My Lords, the FCO website makes reference to a global strategy for combating the global threat of ISIL, which allegedly was agreed at a meeting in Paris on 15 September last year. However, the text of the agreement is not on the FCO website, and I cannot find it anywhere else using Google. Can the Government leave a parting message in Washington before next Thursday to say that we need a mechanism to co-ordinate military strategy among the armed forces of active coalition stakeholders and with the Syrian armed forces on retaking Raqqa?

Eritrea and Ethiopia

Debate between Lord Avebury and Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Tuesday 27th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Anelay of St Johns) (Con)]

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend on securing today’s debate. I also commend the important work of the various all-party groups of which he is an active member, including the All-Party Group on Africa. As he has described, there are few more moving stories than those of migrants who undertake perilous journeys to reach western Europe, sometimes losing their lives in the process. The noble Baroness, Lady Morgan of Ely, has just described that graphically. Today’s debate is, therefore, a welcome opportunity to discuss an issue that clearly links the United Kingdom and our partners in Africa—and indeed, our partners in the European Union in our work to reduce the need for migration and the need for unsafe migration.

The Government have made it very clear that the international community must act together to reduce the risk of migrants losing their lives or falling prey to the traffickers. Migrants make the journey for a number of reasons—whether seeking more economic opportunities or to escape human rights abuses and persecution. I shall come in a moment to some of the more specific points which noble Lords have made on that matter. Poverty and instability in the Horn of Africa drives individuals to seek a better life in Europe and beyond. For those who cannot leave, these same factors contribute to an environment in which fundamentalism and extremism can prosper. Tackling illegal migration to the EU from the Horn of Africa is therefore clearly in our interest and that of all countries in the region. We must address the problem at its source, and the UK is committed to playing its part.

The noble Lord, Lord Rea, in particular asked questions about al-Shabaab and the terrorism link with regard to that. He mentioned the United Nations and Eritrea monitoring group. I understand that Eritrea denies any support for al-Shabaab but continues to refuse entry to the monitoring group. We urge it to co-operate fully with the group’s work. I am entirely at one with the noble Lord in this matter.

Clearly co-operation through our European Union partners is important. I was asked about that not only by the noble Baronesses, Lady Morgan and Lady Kinnock, but by my noble friend Lord Chidgey and the right reverend Prelate. In addition to our bilateral work with key regional partners, we play an active role in the new EU-African Union Khartoum process, which includes of course both Ethiopia and Eritrea, supporting dialogue and co-operation to tackle people smuggling and human trafficking in the region. I can tell the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, that the Prime Minister’s position is that we will negotiate a successful resolution to our relationship with the European Union, and in any future decision by the British people we would put a very positive case and would certainly hope that we would remain part of it. That is the result of successful negotiation by my right honourable friend Philip Hammond, who has been travelling around countries throughout western Europe, taking soundings and getting some very positive results—more positive perhaps than some of the press makes clear on some of the issues that we have been broaching. There is still a long way to go. We know that but we are making progress.

We welcome the fact that both Ethiopia and Eritrea have expressed commitment to the Khartoum process. It provides the best framework to drive this issue forward. Noble Lords have drawn attention to the tension between Ethiopia and Eritrea. I would say to them that if they are taking the Khartoum process seriously, they have to take negotiation on the basis of solving the differences between them seriously too. As a member of the core group of EU and AU member states steering the development of how we take this process forward, we as a country are keen to ensure that we maintain momentum and that the process leads quickly to concrete projects that combat the smuggling and trafficking.

Several noble Lords asked me, in particular, about extended military service—very much a euphemism. I listened very carefully to all the words used by the noble Lord, Lord Rea, the noble Baroness, Lady Kinnock, my noble friends Lord Avebury and Lord Chidgey, and the right reverend Prelate about the real nature of this—one or two noble Lords referred to it as being like slave labour—and the fact that it acts as a serious driver for people to leave the country. Having left and broken the rules on conscription, people are—I cannot think of the right word—terrified to return. That is why some of the figures of asylum grants by us to Eritreans look so high, because clearly there has been concern about them returning to that country given their reasons for leaving.

We did indeed have a joint visit to Eritrea by Home Office and Foreign Office officials in December. They looked at the drivers of migration and particularly discussed the matter of extended military service. I can say to my noble friend Lord Chidgey that this was a useful starting point for further co-operation. A similar visit to Ethiopia is planned for the near future. With regard the visit to Eritrea, the Eritrean Government representatives assured the officials from the FCO that military service will be strictly limited to 18 months and, indeed, I have been briefed by those officials today. The undertaking has been given. It is matter now of making sure that that is put into practice.

The noble Lord, Lord Rea, made the valid point that not everybody fleeing Eritrea is fleeing persecution; some leave for strong economic reasons, and the extension of the 18 months’ military service, with no knowing when it would finish, was an awful position to be in. That is very different from some of the drivers that one sees for people fleeing from Syria.

The matter of development assistance was raised by my noble friend Lord Patten. He asked about the role of aid. We are firmly committed to the use of aid in ensuring that there is security and prosperity in countries that currently experience neither. Our total spend over all countries in 2013 was almost £11.5 billion, second only behind the USA in overall volume. We believe that that is helping to change the lives of many millions of ordinary citizens across the Horn of Africa. In Ethiopia, in particular, last year our funding allowed over 1.6 million children to go to primary school, helped 110,000 mothers to give birth safely and provided clean water for more than 250,000 people. Our funding is also helping Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia, particularly with shelter and support to unaccompanied minors, as well as warning refugees of the risks of illegal migration. I know that none of that will be a surprise to the noble Baroness, Lady Kinnock. When she was a Minister she was passionate about these issues, and rightly so. I can assure her that that passion remains in government.

I was also asked about the issue of Ethiopian and Eritrean relations more generally. My noble friend made reference to a leaked memo on Ethiopia’s destabilising policy against Eritrea—at least the memo refers to itself as being leaked, whether it was or not I simply do not know. We will consider its contents seriously and closely. Better relations between the two countries are clearly needed. We have called on both sides to respect the commitment that they made in the Algiers peace agreement of December 2000 to refrain from using force against each other. We will continue to encourage both Eritrea and Ethiopia to engage bilaterally and internationally to overcome the current stalemate and hope that progress can be made towards demarcation in accordance with the decision of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission.

[Lord Avebury]

Does my noble friend not recognise that the Algiers agreement was final and binding and that both parties had agreed to accept it, so there is no question of negotiations or variations on the settlement? They both must accept it, and, in particular, Ethiopia must agree to the border that was determined by the British judge, Judge Lauterpacht.

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, international agreements, once entered into, should be adhered to, and I hope that the Russians hear that with regard to the Minsk protocol with regard to Ukraine. I agree with my noble friend about the importance of keeping one’s word.

Much attention was drawn to the issue of human rights, and rightly so. I will summarise very rapidly indeed. The noble Baroness, Lady Kinnock, my noble friends Lord Avebury and Lord Chidgey, the noble Lord, Lord Rea, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Derby all raised issues. Briefly, with regard to the matter of Petros, we are of course aware of that case. I am afraid that I can give the noble Lord, Lord Rea, no comfort. We do not have any assurances about his well-being despite consistent efforts to obtain them. We will continue to call for his release.

There are human rights abuses across the board. The right reverend Prelate raised the issue of religious freedom. We will continue to look very carefully at the matters he raised because, clearly, those are abuses that have occurred and, as he rightly says, particularly against groups that are not registered under the Eritrean system. There was a reference to the detention of political prisoners and journalists. We certainly try to establish the facts. There are still journalists in detention despite reports that six have been released. There was a reference to the Swedish-Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak, who is still under arrest.

With regard to all these matters, we do not give up. Just because it is difficult, we do not give up in pursuing our relationship with these two countries. Walking away would leave those who are the victims of persecution and misbehaviour by Governments in a more perilous position than they currently face. The commitment of this Government is that this is a challenge that requires a global, long-term response to a difficult problem. We will all keep trying to ensure that, as an international community, we do our best to tackle it for the sake of those behind the traffickers and behind Governments who do not have good governance.

Kuwait: Bidoon

Debate between Lord Avebury and Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Tuesday 2nd December 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Avebury]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the Government of Kuwait about granting citizenship to the stateless Bidoon who are resident in that country.

[The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Anelay of St Johns) (Con)]

My Lords, the British embassy in Kuwait is in regular contact with the Kuwaiti Government to lobby on this important issue. The UK recognises that the situation of the Bidoon in Kuwait causes real human rights problems. We encourage the Kuwaiti Government to implement swiftly their plan to naturalise those individuals eligible for Kuwaiti nationality and regularise the situation for the remainder.

[Lord Avebury (LD)]

My Lords, I know that my noble friend is well aware of the fact that Kuwaiti Bidoon children are born stateless and go through the whole of their lives without access to education, health and public services of all kinds. Over the many years that the Government have been making representations on the subject, their representations have fallen on deaf ears. Will my noble friend, bearing in mind the close relationship between the royal families of our two countries and the recent world public appeal of the UNHCR to reduce statelessness, consider making a high-level appeal to the emir himself to grant citizenship to those 120,000 stateless people, and procure that the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs follows our example?

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, I would not seek to invite the Royal Family to take particular actions, but I am sure that everything that the noble Lord says in this Chamber has due regard paid to it in these matters. He is right to refer to the UNHCR. The UK is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, but Kuwait is not. We encourage all countries to sign the convention.

I should remind my noble friend, and therefore the House, that the 105,000 estimated Bidoon who seek nationality are not all in the same category. Of those, about 34,000 were in Kuwait before independence in 1961 but did not register for citizenship. The remaining number have come to Kuwait after that date from other countries. Some of them went there to work; some were illegal immigrants. Therefore, their position is very different from those who, with their descendants, seek full citizenship.

ISIL

Debate between Lord Avebury and Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Tuesday 14th October 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Avebury]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what additional measures they are suggesting to allied states to prevent ISIL occupying further territory in Syria and Iraq.

[The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Anelay of St Johns) (Con)]

My Lords, we are working closely with allies to deliver a sustained, comprehensive strategy to degrade and defeat ISIL. We welcome the recent decisions of Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark to join air strikes against ISIL. The Foreign Secretary continues to emphasise to our counterparts the need collectively to squeeze ISIL’s finances, to provide appropriate support to moderate forces in Iraq and Syria, and to work for an inclusive Government in Baghdad and political transition in Syria.

[Lord Avebury (LD)]

My Lords, we are about to witness genocide, with the Daesh terrorists slaughtering thousands of Kurds in the besieged city of Kobani. Cannot the coalition airdrop military and humanitarian supplies to the defenders, as it has done in Iraq? If the Turks cannot help us by allowing use of airbases, as was suggested by Susan Rice yesterday, could they not at least allow the coalition to place observers on the border, so that the air strikes that we are mounting against ISIS in Kobani can be directed by observers on the ground?

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My noble friend points to a situation in Kobani which deeply concern us all. Naturally, we are watching developments very closely. Turkey is already playing an important role in our coalition effort against ISIL, particularly through its humanitarian support in the region—my noble friend referred to that work, which I am sure will continue and intensify. Turkey is also assisting in providing support to the Syrian moderate opposition. Therefore we welcome Turkey’s support for the air strikes in Syria and Iraq, and the President of Turkey’s affirmation that he and his country are willing to play their part in the military campaign. My noble friend is right to press us to look further at how we might discuss with Turkey where that direction of help may develop. I am grateful to him for raising those issues today.

Death Penalty

Debate between Lord Avebury and Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Wednesday 7th March 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, it is the custom that when a Labour person has asked the Question we then give other Benches an opportunity. I know that the noble Lord, Lord Anderson, was not trying to be difficult.

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, what can we say to countries that prescribe the death penalty for offences such as adultery or apostasy? My noble friend will have noted the unlawful deportation by Malaysia of the writer Hamza Kashgari to Saudi Arabia, where he faces execution for something that he said on Twitter. Will the Government propose to the UN that states which execute people for apostasy should be made ineligible for membership of the Human Rights Council?

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

Debate between Lord Avebury and Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Tuesday 24th January 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, the small print in the paragraphs of Schedule 1, dealt with in this group of amendments, would have a catastrophic effect on the provision of advice and representation—

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

Perhaps I may encourage noble Lords to leave the Chamber peacefully so that we can hear my noble friend Lord Avebury.

[Lord Avebury]

I am most grateful to my noble friend. I was saying that it would have a catastrophic effect on the provision of advice and representation to Gypsies and Travellers on issues relating to their accommodation. I am sure that I do not need to remind your Lordships that in the most recent survey by the DCLG in England, almost one in five of the caravan-dwelling population of Travellers was homeless, and that in terms of health, education, life expectancy, employment and access to public services they are the most deprived ethnic minority in our country. The tragic events at Dale Farm in Hertfordshire brought the plight of residents there to the attention of the whole country as their eviction was played out on TV day after day, at an estimated cost to the taxpayer, and to the council tax payers of Basildon, of £18 million.

Ministers say that Travellers must obey planning laws like everyone else; but they demolished the system created by the previous Government under which an obligation was imposed on local authorities to provide planning permission for Travellers’ sites that would accommodate the number of Travellers in each area, as determined by an independent assessment of needs, buttressed by public inquiries. Since the Secretary of State gave local authorities carte blanche to rip up those plans and decide in their unaided wisdom whether to allocate any land at all in their development plans to Travellers’ sites, the number of sites for which it was intended that planning permission should be granted has plummeted by half, according to research conducted by the Irish Traveller Movement in Britain.

At the same time, because of the unsympathetic attitude to Travellers who want to provide their own accommodation caused by the scrapping of circular 1/2006, Travellers who want to provide their own accommodation now have greater difficulty than ever identifying plots of land on which they would have the remotest chance of getting planning permission. They invariably find that there is an immediate hullabaloo from settled residents in the neighbourhood, whatever the planning merits of the site, because Gypsies and Travellers are the only communities against whom open racist prejudice can still be voiced without challenge.

This is the context in which Travellers are to be deprived of legal aid in cases that involve eviction from unauthorised sites and from rented sites; other issues concerning rented sites; High Court and county court planning cases such as injunctions, planning appeals or stop notices; and, finally, homelessness cases. In paragraph 28 of Schedule 1, loss of home is kept within the scope of legal aid, and “home” includes a caravan that is the individual's only or main residence. However, the words left out by the first four amendments in this group, and by Amendment 87, would address the exclusion of a caravan that is occupied by a trespasser. This would mean, for example, that a Traveller who trespasses on a local authority site, having been moved on from the roadside to a vacant pitch, would be unable to contest an order for possession and would thus be at immediate risk of losing their home. In such a case recently, solicitors managed to fend off an order and the case is going to trial.

A great deal of media attention has been given recently to local authority housing that has been left unoccupied for months, or even years in some cases. If the same is happening on local authority Traveller sites, where the shortage is even more desperate, it is surely desirable that the courts should be able to look into the matter. There is a difference between caravan dwellers and housing trespassers because there are houses in which a homeless person can be accommodated, but there are no sites on which a person dispossessed from a caravan site can find alternative accommodation. There are just no alternative sites available.