Syria

Debate between Lord Wood of Anfield and Lord Collins of Highbury

Thursday 19th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

On that last point, of course Captagon is a real challenge, and the Assad regime used it to fund many of its activities. Certainly, it has regional implications, and it has spread to countries in the region. Fortunately, there is no evidence that it has spread to this country, but we are acutely aware of the dangers of it in countries in regional proximity, and we are giving what assistance we can in challenging that.

The noble Lord asked specific questions about the post process. As I said at the beginning, it is very fluid—and it is clear that we need to engage a range of partners, including specific neighbourhood countries but also international multilateral institutions, as we are doing. We are also acutely aware that there are changes ahead in the new year, and we need to ensure that we have consistency of approach. We are working closely with all our colleagues and allies and all countries in the region to ensure that stability, peace and security remain at the forefront of all our efforts.

[Lord Wood of Anfield (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend the Minister for the Statement. On sanctions, I understand the fluidity of the situation—we all recognise that—but there is a prima facie case that sanctions were imposed on a regime that has now been deposed. Syria is the third most sanctioned country in the world. Can my noble friend outline the process by which we are making decisions about when and how to ease the sanctions that we impose? Of course, another feature of Syria is the number of other countries that have not just an interest but a direct military presence, particularly Israel in the south and Turkey in the north. What representations are we making to Istanbul and Tel Aviv, and the Governments in those two countries, about limiting their military interference as Syria faces such a sensitive and febrile moment?

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

To answer my noble friend’s latter point—again, we addressed this in the past week—we are of course aware of the presence of Israel across the Alpha line in the Golan Heights. The UN Disengagement Observer Force agreement of 1974 is important for the stability of the wider region. The Foreign Secretary discussed developments with his counterpart on 8 December, making sure that Israel honoured all those commitments under that agreement. As I said earlier in relation to north-east Syria, we have done the same with Turkey regarding honouring those commitments and sticking to the agreements.

In terms of sanctions, as I mentioned, there are 310 individuals whom this country has sanctioned who remain accountable for their crimes. We are certainly looking at ways that we can ensure that we follow them and make sure that they cannot use any assets that they get out of Syria. In fact, my objective would be to see just how those illicit funds could be followed. The important thing is that we have given, and will continue to give, aid and support to the people of Syria. When things become more stable, we will be in a position to review sanctions.

Volunteering Abroad

Debate between Lord Wood of Anfield and Lord Collins of Highbury

Wednesday 30th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wood of Anfield]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to create new opportunities for young people to volunteer abroad.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Lord Collins of Highbury) (Lab)]

My Lords, we are exploring options to continue to support young people to volunteer and engage in active citizenship, alongside existing efforts to strengthen civic space. We will confirm our plans in due course. Currently, the FCDO supports volunteering through VSO’s active citizenship through inclusive volunteering and empowerment programme, ACTIVE. It supports vulnerable and marginalised people in 19 countries to shape their own communities, claim their rights to better public services and hold people in power accountable.

[Lord Wood of Anfield (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that Answer. He mentioned VSO. In February I had the privilege of being a political volunteer for VSO, seeing the extraordinary work that it does in Nepal with local staff and volunteers. VSO and other volunteering providers have been waiting to see whether the previous Government’s commitment to a restored international volunteering programme, first mooted in April 2023, will be picked up by our new Government. I appreciate that this may be early, but will that plan form the basis of this Government’s plans for a new programme, or will there be something different in the pipeline?

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

We will make a decision on youth volunteering in the coming months as Ministers and FCDO officials consider the advice, but the international development volunteering programme was designed as a new programme rather than as a resumption of the old International Citizen Service, so there is a process to go through regarding that.