UNHCR Syrian Refugees Programme

Debate between Alistair Burt and Stephen Gilbert

Wednesday 29th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Alistair Burt (North East Bedfordshire) (Con)]

I am pleased to take part in the debate. I commend the motion and the way in which it was moved. I unreservedly welcome the efforts of the Home Secretary and many Front-Bench colleagues to respond to the crisis. I wanted to take part in the debate because the right hon. Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper), who speaks for the Opposition, moved the motion in a conciliatory and considered manner. I thought over the past couple of weeks that that was not necessarily the tone being taken by people outside. I felt strongly that there was a danger that a Government who had done an extraordinary amount in relation to the crisis might end up on the wrong side of the argument.

The Government’s basic position is absolutely correct, as all colleagues have tended to endorse. It is best to help in the region where people are concentrated, and the extraordinary efforts being made by neighbours have been helped by the most generous contribution that this country has ever made to such a crisis abroad. However, as times and needs change, a bit of flexibility is not always a bad thing. Therefore, the response to what the UN has been saying has been important.

As all colleagues have said, it is important to work with the UN. We have been its biggest supporters in going around the world asking for higher contributions to meet its appeals. As colleagues have mentioned, a number of countries have not stumped up. It would have been difficult, had we done all this, if the UN had turned on us and said, “You’re not doing enough.” It is good, therefore, that we have reached this position. It is better than just taking a slightly smaller number of people. Targeting the people we can help most, particularly those caught up in sexual violence, bearing in mind all that my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has done in relation to this, makes an even more important point. The help is targeted, and I think that the response has been absolutely right.

On a wider issue, I too, as colleagues would know and expect, have visited those who have been working with refugees in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. There is hardly enough that we can say about the generosity and hospitality of those countries, or about the skill and expertise of our own aid workers—often technical specialists in the camps and outside. I visited a small town in Jordan where people had been decamped. They are in the local economy and that puts pressures on as well, to which we have been responding. However, the extraordinary skills that people have been displaying to assist those who work for the NGOs and who work through DFID, have all played a part. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has done a tremendous job in keeping up interest in relation to that. Therefore, the combination of what the UK is giving by working locally and the response here has been particularly effective.

One or two colleagues say that we should take special notice of Christian victims. I have not spoken much on the matter before. It was a policy I was looking after, but I want to make two or three quick points because it is an important issue. It is undeniably true that the Christian community in the middle east has been under particularly severe pressure in a region where lots of people have suffered, but the answer is not to single them out but to say that the rule of law has to protect all. The importance of that is that it is not being politically correct; it is ensuring that Christians are not identified with the false claim of the extremists that it is a western construct and a western religion. To give any sense to that and to say, however well meaning, that there is a welcome for them in a “Christian country” feeds that narrative and assists the extremists. Therefore, I urge colleagues and people outside who are rightly concerned about the Christian community to take a lead from his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales and Prince Ghazi of Jordan, who are working with Muslim leaders in the region to recognise the particular issues facing Christians and to work through those leaders to provide relief there.

I want to make a final point on the conflict itself—[Interruption.] The trick to avoiding coughing during a speech is not to eat yoghurt-flavoured peanuts to keep you going. It is not the yoghurt that gets you; it is the peanuts. I shall return to my serious point about the ending of the conflict. I was in Geneva yesterday with the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and I took the opportunity to meet one or two friends who were involved in the talks. The news coming out of the talks is poor. The situation is extremely tough: the Syrian regime does not feel the need to concede, because not enough pressure has been placed upon it.

We are absolutely right to support the Syrian opposition coalition. As colleagues know, I take the view—one that is not shared by all—that they should be allowed a greater opportunity to have the means to defend themselves against the barbaric attacks, because changing the balance on the ground could help the negotiation process and thereby bring about a quicker end to the conflict. It is essential that we focus all our attention on that. Looking after the refugees is important but it is a symptom, not the cause.

[Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay) (LD)]

I entirely agree with my right hon. Friend’s analysis. Of course it is right that we should address the problem in the surrounding countries, but real success will involve getting humanitarian access into Syria as well. What more can we in this country do to put pressure on the regime to allow such access?

[Alistair Burt]

This is genuinely very difficult. The regime thinks that it is winning. We talk about there being no foreign intervention in Syria, but there is. The boots on the ground are from Iran and from Hezbollah, and support is coming from Russia. In addition, the Gulf countries have supported those groups that they believe to be in a position to remove the regime, but they should be focusing all that attention on the official opposition, rather than on the extremists. Starvation and sieges are being used as weapons, which is one of the reasons why it is difficult to get stuff into the country. The regime has played a desperate role in relation to the citizens who have been caught up in the conflict. I believe that extra pressure needs to be placed on the regime. We also need to work with Russia, because it is in that country’s interests that the conflict should end sooner rather than later. The sad truth is, however, that it will end only when that suits other people’s interests, and not, alas, the interests of the people of Syria. We should never lose sight of that fact.

The support of my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary for the people of Syria has been remarkable throughout the conflict, and it is important to stick with them. It is worth working in this way. Only this week, the Tunisian people approved a constitution after three years of difficulty but without the kind of turmoil that we have seen elsewhere. I still believe that, long term, the Arab awakening will work, but there is, alas, much pain still to be experienced in the region. What the United Kingdom is doing to relieve that pain is quite remarkable, and the Home Secretary deserves every praise for bringing forward her proposals today.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alistair Burt and Stephen Gilbert

Tuesday 19th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Alistair Burt]

I have read the letters extremely carefully, and they were transferred to the Treasury to deal with the sanctions element. I sympathise fully with not only the hon. Lady’s constituent but others who have been in that situation. The reason why her constituent cannot return is not so much because of UK travel advice as because of the conflict in Libya. It is not possible for the UK Government to underwrite every broken contract that will have arisen because of the conflict, and there is nothing that can be done to provide financial assistance. What is most important is that the conflict comes to an end as soon as possible, so that the work of reconstruction can begin and contracts can be replaced. Unfortunately, the British Government simply cannot give the sort of guarantee that her constituent might be looking for.

[Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay) (LD)]

What assessment has the Minister made of the ability of the Libyan state apparatus to survive without Gaddafi, and what other conversations is he having with international colleagues about the possible need for a post-conflict stabilisation force?

[Alistair Burt]

Together with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, I was at the Libya contact group meeting in Istanbul just last Friday. Post-conflict stabilisation and reconstruction is now a very significant element of the international community’s considerations of Libya and its contact with the national transitional council. We believe that the future for Libya without Gaddafi is clearly much better than its situation with him. Everything is working towards him leaving power so that the work of negotiation for a new Government in Libya, and the stabilisation work that is a very important part of what is being considered at the moment, can begin.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alistair Burt and Stephen Gilbert

Tuesday 15th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay) (LD)]

12. What assessment he has made of the adequacy of consular services provided to UK nationals during the recent events in Libya; and if he will make a statement.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Alistair Burt)]

In what has been the most complex FCO-led evacuation since Kuwait, some 600 British nationals were safely brought out of Libya, and we are all grateful for the immense amount of hard work done by those both in this country, and particularly in Libya, to look after our constituents. However, there are always lessons to be learned, and the Foreign Secretary has asked for a review of our evacuation practices in order to make sure that the practice overall is as good as the very best examples of it.

[Stephen Gilbert]

I am grateful to the Minister for his answer. Given that article 20 of the treaty on the functioning of the European Union allows British nationals to receive consular assistance from any EU member state, what discussions is he having with other EU states to ensure effective and co-ordinated EU responses to such crises in future?

[Alistair Burt]

There was co-operation and consultation between all European partners right from the beginning. We often shared each other’s planes. The United Kingdom was able to bring out 819 foreign nationals of 43 different countries by way of the work we did. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that it is essential in such circumstances that there is a lot of co-operation, and we will continue to make sure our practices provide for that at all times.