UNHCR: Admission Pathways for Syrian Refugees
David Crausby Excerpts(8 years, 9 months ago)
Westminster HallRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
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Several hon. Members rose—
Mr David Crausby (in the Chair)
Order. I intend to call the three Front-Bench spokespersons at about 10.30 am. If Members can keep their contributions to around six or seven minutes, we should get everyone in.
Oral Answers to Questions
David Crausby Excerpts(11 years, 5 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Justine Greening
We do our best work with the UN agencies, which are co-ordinating much of the relief to ensure that the most vulnerable are protected. The right hon. Gentleman will be aware that about 75% of the refugees leaving Syria are women and children, so this is incredibly important. Alongside that work, we clearly need to work in the host communities in places like Jordan to ensure that they are able to cope with this huge influx of people who are placing added pressure on their services, which can often cause tension leading to the kind of trouble that he has mentioned.
Mr David Crausby (Bolton North East) (Lab)
The United Nations reports that the refugee crisis in Syria is the worst since that in Rwanda, and that 6,000 people—over half of them children—are fleeing the country every day. What does the Secretary of State intend to do to protect the health and education of those children in what is becoming a catastrophic humanitarian disaster?
Justine Greening
The hon. Gentleman is right to point out the comments of António Guterres, who is heading up the refugee operation. As I said earlier, we are particularly focused on what we can do to support the most vulnerable, and that includes children. We are doubling our support to over £300 million in the coming months, and I can assure him that we will put the appropriate amount of that into helping children cope with what is happening to them and ensuring that they are still preparing for the rest of their lives through education.
Oral Answers to Questions
David Crausby Excerpts(11 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. This Government have put a cap on the welfare that families can receive, but we have been as generous as we can with pensioners who have worked hard during their lives and want to have dignity and security in old age. That is why we have the triple lock. Very interestingly, we now know that the Labour party wants to cut the pension because it is putting a cap on pensions but not on welfare. Just this morning the shadow Foreign Secretary was on television—the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband) may not know this as he might not have been following it—and when challenged about the triple lock he said that it was Labour’s policy “at present”. Given all the U-turns we have had in the last week from the Labour party, I do not think “at present” will last very long.
Mr David Crausby (Bolton North East) (Lab)
Q6. Will the Prime Minister congratulate Bolton Wanderers football club for doing the right thing by rejecting sponsorship from a payday loan firm, and will he also join in, do the right thing, and give local authorities the power to ban those predatory loan sharks from our high streets?
The Prime Minister
I hear what the hon. Gentleman says and I wish Bolton Wanderers well for the future. We must give more support to credit unions in our country, which I think is one of the best ways of addressing the whole problem of payday loans and payday lending. I also hope the hon. Gentleman will welcome the fact that over the past year unemployment has fallen fastest in the north west of our country.
Oral Answers to Questions
David Crausby Excerpts(13 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Mitchell
My hon. Friend rightly points to the fact that the Government are focusing on countries that are mired in fragility and conflict. It is one of the reasons why the Prime Minister has decided that Britain should host a conference on Somalia to try to ensure that we tackle the causes of state failure as well as the symptoms of it.
Mr David Crausby (Bolton North East) (Lab)
Is the Secretary of State satisfied that the Kenyan invasion of Somalia will not hinder the distribution of aid?
Mr Mitchell
It is clear that there are a large number of difficulties, including the disposition of forces in Somalia, which hinders the distribution of aid. The biggest hindrance of all is the work of al-Shabab, which has kicked out 16 aid agencies. We are now very reliant on the International Committee of the Red Cross and two British non-governmental organisations, Save the Children and Oxfam, for getting relief through to an enormous number of very malnourished children who are in danger of dying as a result of this famine.