Xinjiang Internment Camps: Shoot-to-Kill Policy

Debate between Amanda Milling and Rachael Maskell

Tuesday 24th May 2022 Commons Chamber

[Amanda Milling]

As I said earlier, it is important that the high commissioner makes this visit and that the Chinese authorities grant her full and unfettered access so that the review can be a thorough assessment of the facts on the ground. We are following her visit very closely.

[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

John Sudworth’s BBC report this morning was chilling, both in scale and in content. I have to say that the Minister’s response is woeful. The reality is that she is the person with the power that could make a difference to the genocide in China. What discussions has she had this morning with Chinese officials since the revelations in these papers? What was the response?

[Amanda Milling]

As I have said repeatedly, the evidence that we are seeing is shocking. The Foreign Secretary has made it very clear that these are shocking details that add to what is already an extensive body of evidence. I want to reassure the House that FCDO Ministers, civil servants and diplomats regularly raise the matter; I have raised it with the Chinese ambassador in London, for instance, and the Foreign Secretary has raised it with her counterpart, as has the Prime Minister. We regularly raise these issues.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: Forced Confession

Debate between Amanda Milling and Rachael Maskell

Tuesday 24th May 2022 Commons Chamber

[Amanda Milling]

As I said in an earlier answer, the Iranian authorities made clear at the airport that they would not let Nazanin leave unless she signed the document. The UK official passed on the message to Nazanin, and given the situation in which Iran had placed her, she agreed to sign it.

[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

Although the Iranian regime is fully responsible for the plights of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori over the past six years, it is clear that the actions of the Foreign Office have not helped on many steps of their journey. Can we therefore have an independent inquiry into the actions and inactions of the Foreign Office that have hindered much of the progress that needed to be made?

[Amanda Milling]

Diplomats and civil servants within the Foreign Office have worked day and night to secure the release of Nazanin and Anoosheh, and on many other consular cases across the world.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Amanda Milling and Rachael Maskell

Tuesday 25th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

T2. Just 5.5% of people in low-income families are still vaccinated against covid-19. That means disaster for so many nations. Why are the Government blocking the patent when the in-country manufacture of the vaccine could save millions of lives? The Government’s donation is simply a drop in the ocean.

[The Minister for Asia (Amanda Milling)]

Throughout the pandemic our top priority has been to save lives. We firmly believe that the best way to do so is to support the world’s leading scientists. There is no evidence that the intellectual property rights waiver would help to save lives. The TRIPS—trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights—waiver proposal would dismantle the international IP framework that helped to produce the vaccines at an unprecedented pace.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Amanda Milling and Rachael Maskell

Tuesday 30th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Amanda Milling]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his question. I know that he has met my ministerial colleague, the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton), and also the family. Consular staff have been providing support and advice to Tom’s family following his really sad death in Magaluf in July 2018. As well as the virtual meeting that he has held, consular officials in Spain have had meetings with local authorities to understand the procedural investigations that have taken place to ask whether they can do more for the family.

[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Government’s response on Afghanistan is simply not good enough. Yesterday, I met with a democratically elected Member of Parliament from Afghanistan who set out the escalating human rights atrocities as well as the humanitarian situation. Will the Minister urgently meet with MPs from Afghanistan to talk about the situation and put aid in the right places to stop this crisis from getting worse?

[Amanda Milling]

As I have mentioned in a number of answers, we have doubled aid for Afghanistan. This is being provided via UN agencies and non-governmental organisations—not directly to the Taliban—to ensure that it is reaching the people who really need it, and helping those who are most vulnerable and for whom it is intended.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Amanda Milling and Rachael Maskell

Thursday 11th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Amanda Milling]

I thank my hon. Friend for his championing of Wolverhampton, alongside Andy Street’s for the west midlands. With Cannock Chase being not that far from Wolverhampton, I can understand his enthusiasm for that great becoming home for the MHCLG. Our Places for Growth programme is working with Departments to finalise relocation plans, as we work to ensure that our geographical locations cover as representative a distribution across the UK as possible, including the west midlands, and further details will be provided shortly.

[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.