Xinjiang Internment Camps: Shoot-to-Kill Policy Debate

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Department: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

Xinjiang Internment Camps: Shoot-to-Kill Policy

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts
Tuesday 24th May 2022

(1 year, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Amanda Milling Portrait Amanda Milling
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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.

Andrew Gwynne Portrait Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
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I refer to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. The latest reports from Xinjiang confirm what we already knew: that appalling crimes, human rights abuses and genocide are happening to the Uyghur people.

I return to the issue of security used in this country. The Minister cannot just say that this is an issue of a commercial nature or one with security considerations. She is the Minister. This security equipment and these companies are being used by the British Government, their agencies and their public bodies. She could say today that we are not going to use them. Why does she not do so?

Amanda Milling Portrait Amanda Milling
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As I have said, we take the security of our citizens, our systems and our establishments incredibly seriously. We have a range of measures in place to scrutinise the integrity of our arrangements, but it is our long-standing policy that we do not comment on the details of those arrangements.