International Development (India)

Debate between Jeremy Corbyn and Stephen O'Brien

Thursday 26th January 2012 Westminster Hall

[Jeremy Corbyn]

I am glad that the Minister is addressing this issue. What monitoring is taking place of private sector organisations that might be in receipt of equity capital via Britain or public sector organisations, in order to ensure that there is no discrimination anywhere on the basis of caste and descent? We should support the Dalit civil rights organisation and others, as the Minister has rightly said, to lift them out of the poverty and discrimination from which so many of them suffer.

[Mr O'Brien]

I listened carefully to the hon. Gentleman’s speech. He focused in particular on the Dalit population, and the third pillar that we have agreed with the Indian Government directly addresses his point. It is a new programme of co-operation with India on global issues, such as climate change, trade and food security. Linked to that is addressing full-on social exclusion. We have agreed with the Government of India and Odisha to set up a conditional cash transfer scheme to help more than 220,000 tribal and Dalit girls who are currently in the last year of upper primary school get the opportunity of secondary education.

Our civil society programmes in India are consistent and directly target the poorest and most vulnerable people, particularly the Dalits. They also target tribal people, Muslims, women and disabled people in order to get them to organise, understand their rights and get access to services and opportunities that they have often been denied. In direct response to the International Development Committee’s recommendation, we will increase the funding available to civil society organisations to work with the poorest and most excluded people in the poorest states. That will cover 120 of the poorest districts in India. DFID’s poorest areas civil society programme—PACS—focuses explicitly on tackling social exclusion, discrimination and inequality. The hon. Gentleman rightly mentioned monitoring and evaluation, which are crucial because otherwise we would not receive any feedback. They are designed into the programmes, so we will be able to report on them as they develop and make sure that we are held to account on their performance.

Gaza (Aid)

Debate between Jeremy Corbyn and Stephen O'Brien

Tuesday 13th September 2011 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Stephen O'Brien)]

Thank you very much indeed, Mr Dobbin, for calling me to speak. I congratulate the hon. Member for Linlithgow and East Falkirk (Michael Connarty) on securing this very important debate and I thank him for doing so.

Let me begin by stating very clearly that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is unacceptable and unsustainable. In Gaza, 66% of the people are dependent on food aid; 90% of mains water is unfit to drink, the consequences of which were particularly noted by the hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn), who has just contributed to the debate; and, despite the fact that schools are running on double or triple shifts, 40,000 children have no school place. Gaza’s economy is depressed and aid-dependent. There has been strong growth recently, but from a very low base. GDP per capita remains 40% below 1994 levels. At 37%, the unemployment level is among the highest in the world, and 38% of Gazans live in poverty. It is deeply troubling that Gaza, which should have a thriving economy, is currently one of the highest per capita recipients of aid funding in the world.

We believe that the actions of both Israel and Hamas have contributed to the current situation in Gaza. Between 18 and 21 August this year, we witnessed, once again, an alarming escalation of violence: a terrorist attack in southern Israel, more than 100 rockets and mortars launched from the Gaza strip at Israeli civilians, and retaliatory strikes by the Israeli air force against targets in Gaza. Nine Israelis were killed during the rocket attacks, and many more were injured.

We strongly condemn the appalling violence. In Gaza, at least 15 people have been reported killed, including three children, and 44 injured. We have urged the Israeli Government to ensure that everything is done to avoid further civilian causalities. The announcement of the current ceasefire is welcome, and it is vital that both sides now show restraint and seek to reduce the tensions. Like the hon. Members for Linlithgow and East Falkirk and for Islington North, I have been to the region, although not to Gaza itself—that was the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire (Alistair Burt)—but in the southern Israel area the problems are real and continuing.

Israel retains obligations under international law as an occupying power. It controls the majority of Gaza’s borders, and sea and air space and, as such, has primary responsibility for facilitating humanitarian access to Gaza. We welcomed the changes to the Gaza access regime announced in June 2010, and the subsequent package of measures agreed by Quartet representative Blair and Prime Minister Netanyahu on 4 February this year. However, recent UN reports show that the measures have not brought any fundamental change to Gaza, with food insecurity remaining high and economic opportunities scarce.

Much more needs to be done to ease restrictions on exports, construction material imports and the movement of people. Israel’s commitments on exports that were agreed with the Quartet representative in February 2011 have not yet been met. Increases in imports since June mainly relate to consumer goods, with the number of trucks entering still being only one third of what it was pre-blockade. We understand Israel’s security concerns, but the current access regime imposed by Israel has the perverse effect of fostering radicalisation and empowering Hamas, while punishing the ordinary people of Gaza.

Economic restrictions have not brought political change or degraded the military capability of Hamas. On the contrary, legitimate business is being strangled while Hamas allies are strengthened. Isolation and growing frustration at the lack of economic opportunities make extremism more attractive, a point ably highlighted by my hon. Friend the Member for Aberconwy (Guto Bebb) in his intervention. An improved economy and a resurgence of Gaza’s business sector are not only essential for the people of Gaza, but firmly in Israel’s security interests.

The vast majority of goods entering Gaza come not through the official crossings but through the vast network of tunnels between Egypt and Gaza. Hamas controls the tunnels and imposes taxes on goods passing through them, the money raised forming a large part of their revenue base. As a result of the blockade, UN and non-governmental organisation projects confront constant difficulties in gaining access and in importing construction materials, which means that projects designed to help the most vulnerable people are blocked, delayed or made more expensive. Meanwhile, 30 times more cement and 10 times more steel comes in through the Hamas-controlled tunnels than through the crossings.

[Jeremy Corbyn]

I hope that the Minister has the opportunity to visit Gaza at some point. I welcome what he says, but does he not acknowledge that the tunnels are a product of the blockade? Without the blockade there would be no point in the tunnels, and there certainly would be no economic advantage in having them. The blockade must be lifted; that is the crucial issue.

Ivory Coast (Humanitarian Situation)

Debate between Jeremy Corbyn and Stephen O'Brien

Thursday 31st March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr O’Brien]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. I know from my recent visit to the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, on the border with Somalia, that a large refugee camp is extremely difficult to manage. In Liberia, which I shall visit shortly, I hope to go to where the refugees are to see what the conditions are like and how they can best be managed in a humanitarian way. As for the refugees’ reasons for leaving the country, they are very plain: deep fear, deep instability, and the aggression that is being directed at their own people. All those factors are causing them to flee for their own safety. Clearly, the underlying aim must be to return Côte d’Ivoire to political stability and some semblance of democratic legitimacy.

[Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) (Lab)]

The situation in Ivory Coast is obviously terrible and tragic, and I welcome any aid and support that can be given, but a failure of politics has brought about that situation and there must be a political solution. Although there may be different interpretations of the election result on both sides, it must be recognised that there is considerable support for Gbagbo and Ouattara in their respective hinterlands, and any political solution must take that into account. Can the Minister confirm that working with the African Union and ECOWAS is the way forward, rather than allowing the country to descend into a terrible civil war?

[Mr O’Brien]

Like everyone else in the House, the hon. Gentleman naturally wishes to avoid any descent into civil war. The primary focus of our efforts must be on the African Union and ECOWAS, because a locally owned solution is much more likely to be both sustainable and peaceful and to take account of the relative strengths of the support currently available to each of the warring parties.