Conflict in Sudan

Nesil Caliskan Excerpts

Tuesday 8th September 2026 Westminster Hall

[Nesil Caliskan (Barking) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Allin-Khan. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Gillingham and Rainham (Naushabah Khan) for securing this important debate, and I welcome the Minister to her place.

Sudan is now in its fourth year of conflict—four years of violence, displacement and starvation. Up to 400,000 people have been killed in a war that has displaced more than 14 million people and left 34 million—two thirds of the population—in need of humanitarian support. Behind those numbers are people’s lives, stories and unimaginable trauma and grief—a family forced to flee their generational home, a child suffering from malnutrition, a woman, girl or baby who has survived sexual violence or who has died because of sexual violence.

Those are some of the stories that my Barking constituents have shared with me. I have spoken to constituents with family links to Sudan, who fear for their loved ones. Others are horrified by the events and the international complacency. Sudan needs an immediate ceasefire and aid. That is why I support the Government’s efforts to keep the Sudan conflict high on the international agenda. I commend the former Foreign Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley (Yvette Cooper), for all her efforts, and in particular for chairing a special session at the UN Security Council in February that focused entirely on Sudan. She placed the importance of women’s rights at the top of the agenda. In Sudan, it is women and children who have been disproportionately impacted.

[Tom Hayes (Bournemouth East) (Lab)]

Sudan is the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis and, like my hon. Friend, I have constituents who are deeply concerned, including Sandra in Queen’s Park, Gemma in East Cliff and Springbourne and Colleen in Muscliff and Strouden Park. I have heard constituents’ concern about a report in The Guardian on 7 September about women and girls fleeing from the brutal civil war to Egypt, where they thought they would find safety, but they have fallen prey to sexual abuse and exploitation. Does she agree that women and girls are suffering in Sudan, but they are also suffering in places where they should be finding safety?

[Nesil Caliskan]

My hon. Friend makes an important point and underlines the vulnerability that women and girls face across the world. Indeed, a staggering one in four Sudanese people are at risk of sexual violence, and women and girls are disproportionately impacted. In the UN report into the siege of El Fasher, one woman described being raped

“in front of the bodies of my mother, my father and my slaughtered brother.”

I cannot imagine the fear that Sudanese women feel every day. Will the Minister confirm that the £20 million programme to support victims of rape will continue?

In an unstable world where there is humanitarian suffering beyond comprehension, we too often feel forced to consider which crisis we care about the most. The truth is that humanity and compassion have no boundaries; they are not diluted by proximity, ethnicity or religion. There is no hierarchy of humanitarian suffering that we should be outraged about. Indeed, my constituents frequently express to me their deep frustration that the media and Government do not shine a brighter light on what is going on in Sudan.

More than just talking about the appalling situation in Sudan, we need the UK Government to take action. Will the Minister confirm that the UK will continue its arms embargo and sanctions regime until there is a ceasefire in Sudan? In July, sanctions were introduced against a further 11 individuals and organisations. The individuals and organisations on that list reveal a glimmer of the web of dark money and corporate interests that are exploiting this conflict for their own greed. Commercial brokers, real estate management companies, capital holding corporations, mining companies—the list goes on. All those organisations and individuals have blood on their hands.

Sanctioning individuals is not enough while the arms keep flowing. The UN independent international fact-finding mission for Sudan found reasonable grounds to believe that there is a transnational network running through companies and intermediaries in the UAE. Will the Minister say what the UK is doing, and what more it can do bilaterally and through the UN Security Council, specifically to press the UAE regarding these credible and mounting allegations? In the light of the allegations, will the Government review UK arms licensing arrangements with the UAE? I appreciate that she cannot go into detail about any further sanctions that the Government might be considering, but can she reassure us that that work is under way?

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Gillingham and Rainham again for securing this important debate, and I thank all Members who have participated for their powerful speeches. Finally, I ask the Government to take more action to stop the genocide in Sudan, to support a ceasefire and to help the Sudanese people to find their future.

Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Nesil Caliskan Excerpts

Wednesday 4th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

We are clear that, in our view, the United Nations and its partners have a clear mechanism to ensure that humanitarian need is met, and to prevent diversion to Hamas. We obviously condemn any credible reports of Hamas diverting aid, but those reports should not be a reason why aid is not provided to the Palestinian people. There are tried, trusted and credible mechanisms for distributing the aid that is waiting to get in, as it should.

[Nesil Caliskan (Barking) (Lab)]

The International Red Cross chief has said that Gaza is

“worse than hell on earth”.

Is it any wonder that he did, when those children who have escaped bombs face death from starvation? The United Nations has said that one in five people in Gaza faces starvation because of the blockade. Does the Minister agree with me that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is clearly incapable of addressing the starvation in Gaza—that is now very clear—and that Israel should immediately hand over any aid operation to the United Nations?

[Mr Falconer]

I thank my hon. Friend for the question. I think I have been clear on that point, but yes, the United Nations should deliver the aid, in the principled way that it has previously.

Conflict in Gaza

Nesil Caliskan Excerpts

Thursday 20th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I am very grateful for what the hon. Gentleman has said. Once again from this Dispatch Box, I condemn Hamas, condemn their activities, and condemn them for not releasing those hostages. That is the way out of this: release the hostages, let us get back to a political process and a ceasefire, and stop firing rockets into Israel.

[Nesil Caliskan (Barking) (Lab)]

I thank the Foreign Secretary and his team for what I know are personal diplomatic efforts to play the UK Government’s part in making sure that we can return to a ceasefire. However, in the past few days, hundreds more women and children have been killed in Gaza. We have now had confirmation from the Foreign Secretary that a British national UN aid worker has been wounded, and aid continues to be blocked. For Palestinians, hope is moving far away. Will the Foreign Secretary further reiterate his commitment to the Government’s diplomatic efforts, and will he also give us a sense of what the UK Government are doing at this moment—in which there is such darkness for the Palestinian people when they think about what may be coming in the coming days—so that we can quickly return, not only to a ceasefire, but to longer-term hope for that region?

[Mr Lammy]

My hon. Friend asks what we are doing. I refer her to the communiqué that my G7 partners and I released, which contained a lengthy section on the situation in Gaza, discussing it with seven of our closest partners. I then flew to New York to meet Tom Fletcher to discuss the situation on the ground. I met our colleague in the European Union, Kaja Kallas, just this week to discuss these very issues, and I know that she intends to be in the region to discuss those issues face to face with Israeli counterparts. My hon. Friend will have seen the work of our UN ambassador, Barbara Woodward; there was a closed session at the UN, during which these very same issues were of course discussed with intensity. I want to reassure my hon. Friend that all efforts are being made, and of course we are supporting the reform of the Palestinian Authority. That is why I will be speaking to Prime Minister Mustafa a little later today.

Syria

Nesil Caliskan Excerpts

Monday 9th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

As I have said, this is the No. 1 issue for the UK Government. We will continue to work closely with in-country partners and those in neighbouring countries to ensure that safety for our population. This is a very serious issue and the UK Government are fully engaged across all channels.

[Nesil Caliskan (Barking) (Lab)]

I welcome the Government’s decision to appoint Dame Margaret Hodge as the anti-corruption champion. She will do important work on illicit trading, not least in relation to drugs in Syria. We must not allow those routes to be a source of resource for violent terrorist groups. On the night when it became clear that the Assad regime was about to crumble, many of my constituents in Barking from Syrian backgrounds watched minute by minute—it was a highly emotional night for them. Along with the rest of the world, they saw the regime fall and, with it, decades of brutal rule that had destroyed lives. Does the Foreign Secretary agree that not only is this a moment of hope for the Syrian people, but it is a critical moment as we see the Russian and Iranian influence in the region pushed back, which is better for British national security?

[Mr Lammy]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for paying tribute to Baroness Hodge, who has been a doughty champion on issues of illicit finance. I am so pleased that she accepted this appointment. I was with her this morning at the National Crime Agency. My hon. Friend talks of the joy and hope in the hearts of members of the Syrian community in her constituency. We are seeing that right across our country and across the global community. We have to do all we can to support it, and hope and pray that Syria moves into a brighter future, understanding that it is one of the most ancient of countries. It has been a home for so many communities, and is one of the centres of the birth of civilisation.

Sanctions: Iran

Nesil Caliskan Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Nesil Caliskan (Barking) (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for his speech on this really important issue. The continued instability in the region is of growing concern to many of us, not just because of the immense loss of life but because of the ever-growing security risk for this country. The Government have been clearly leading calls for de-escalation in the region. Does the Minister agree that it is time once again to redouble our efforts with those calls, so that all parties in the region show restraint?

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.