Oral Answers to Questions

Rosie Duffield Excerpts

Tuesday 30th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mitchell]

We are calling for an immediate ceasefire. There were talks in Addis before Christmas. We seek progress through the United Nations, where we hold the pen on Sudan, and also through the Troika, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the African Union. We are doing everything we can to end the appalling situation in Sudan, which my right hon. Friend has just described with great eloquence.

[Rosie Duffield (Canterbury) (Lab)]

15. What discussions he has had with his international counterparts on the situation of the Hazara community in Afghanistan.

[The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Anne-Marie Trevelyan)]

The UK works closely with the international community including the G7 and G20 and through the UN to protect the human rights of all of Afghanistan’s people and to co-ordinate a consistent international response. In December my colleague the Minister for South Asia in the other place raised the recent attacks on Hazaras with the UN assistance mission in Afghanistan.

[Rosie Duffield]

Last week the hon. Member for Bedford (Mohammad Yasin) and I met members of our respective Hazara communities. They also regularly attend the all-party parliamentary group on Hazaras, which is chaired by the hon. Member for Peterborough (Paul Bristow). My concern is that the kidnaps, rapes and persecution that the Taliban regularly use against the Hazara women and girls largely go unreported due to a lack of diplomacy or to journalists being unable to access the region. Would the Minister or a member of her team be prepared to meet those whose families are still stranded in the region and are subject to what is essentially the ethnic cleansing of the Hazara people?

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

The hon. Lady sets out some of the shocking issues that we know about. Indeed, Daesh claimed responsibility for the November attacks and we are continuing to see these challenges. I will happily take back her question to my colleague, and I am sure that he will be happy to meet them.

Conflict in Ethiopia

Rosie Duffield Excerpts

Wednesday 16th November 2022 Westminster Hall

[Rosie Duffield (Canterbury) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the conflict in Ethiopia.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Gary. This debate has come at a very significant time for the Ethiopian people. It is exactly two weeks since an agreement was struck and signed in South Africa between the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or the TPLF. The ceasefire officially ending this brutal two-year conflict is welcomed by all Members of this House. However, according to Ghent University, an estimated 600,000 people have lost their lives, some 875,000 people have become refugees and 90% of Tigray’s population are now dependent on food aid. Those are staggering figures.

Of course, information is still being gathered. Establishing the full facts is incredibly difficult. This is partly because of the serious danger to even well-established and world-renowned non-governmental organisations, whose first priority has to be to protect their workers and those to whom they must give emergency aid. While we sit in this warm, relatively calm and peaceful place, hundreds of incredibly courageous and dedicated aid workers will put their own safety and comfort aside to help the human victims and survivors of the atrocities of war. We may never know the names of those who prioritise the safety and survival of others, but their selfless humanity cannot and should not be underestimated or go unrecognised by this House and politicians the world over.

Although it was a great relief to hear the news of the cessation of this bloody conflict, just two weeks before, UN Secretary-General António Guterres had expressed his deep concern that the situation in Ethiopia was spiralling out of control, and there continue to be reports of conflict in northern Ethiopia, including looting in Adwa and drone attacks. There are gravely concerning reports that, despite the ceasefire, Eritrean troops continue to defy the ceasefire and are still active. We know that they did not formally take part in the peace agreement. With no assurances of an internationally recognised and supervised ceasefire monitoring mechanism, that continues to contribute to fears over the safety and security of civilians, particularly in Tigray.

The conflict has been one of the world’s deadliest, so ensuring that peace is maintained and agreements are adhered to has to be a humanitarian priority for Governments the world over. What I want to hear from our Government today is what actions they are taking to ensure that, either through direct interventions with the Ethiopian Government and/or through the UN.

I have touched on the famine, death and displacement of Ethiopia’s people, but what is perhaps most difficult to discuss is the sexual violence and human rights atrocities committed over the course of this conflict. There has been extensive verification of widespread atrocities, including by Amnesty International, the UN councils and commissions on Ethiopia and the testimonies of many incredibly brave survivors. As politicians, we hear such evidence from warzones quite frequently, but I have rarely been as shocked and moved as I have after hearing about some of those experiences.

The stories are anonymised to protect the survivors. Aida, a 20-year-old from the indigenous Irob minority, was kept in sexual slavery with two other Tigrayan women. She was gang raped by Ethiopian and Eritrean military commanders for over a month in November 2020. Lilly, a 23-year-old from Irob, was kept in sexual slavery with six other Tigrayan women and was repeatedly gang raped by troops when they were hiding in that area. Both women escaped, but one has now given birth as a result of rape. Hanna, a mother of two suffering from breast cancer, was gang raped in a church after being dragged away from family members. Her breast was cut off by a commander and she was left unconscious after being raped by eight soldiers.

There are many hundreds, if not thousands, of similar stories being collected by incredibly brave and outstanding volunteers like Rita Kahsay, who spent three months in refugee camps speaking with those displaced by this conflict. She has painstakingly taken the testimonies of survivors at great personal risk. Some of the most horrific crimes were carried out on children. The Joint UN Human Rights Office-Ethiopian Human Rights Commission found that Tigrayan boys were not spared from the weaponised rapes that took place.

I am lucky enough to be in touch with Rita thanks to the work of a former Member of this House, Sally Keeble, who has continued to raise the plight of the Tigrayan people. Rita could have chosen to simply pursue her path as an engineer in the UK, but she felt compelled to act and help those left in the country of her birth. Her family are dispersed, and she has not been able to be in regular contact with them for at least two years.

Those are the human beings; those are the experiences of people caught up in brutal, bloody and deadly conflicts that have absolutely nothing to do with them. Those are the circumstances that lead to displacement and the creation of hellish refugee camps. Many risk their lives to get to safety by any means.

If those who signed the peace agreement truly welcome peace, they must allow bodies such as the UN to carry out their work. If they truly welcome peace, aid in the form of food and medical treatment must be allowed through, and aid agencies must be allowed to carry out their work unhindered. If they truly welcome peace, that process should be seen to go smoothly by politicians and the displaced diaspora so that the rebuilding of those devastated lives can begin. We in the UK must listen to the joint UN and Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and play our part to help all those affected. We have to act as a global community and seek every assurance that the peace and cessation of violence in Tigray will be meaningful, real and lasting.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

--- Later in debate ---

[Sir Gary Streeter (in the Chair)]

Just before I call the Minister, can I check, Rosie, whether you want to take advantage of time to wind up the debate ?

[Rosie Duffield]

I think I would like to give the time to the Minister.

Women’s Rights to Reproductive Healthcare: United States

Rosie Duffield Excerpts

Tuesday 28th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Amanda Milling]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her question, but I am afraid that I do not agree with the decision that the US courts have made, and I share the Prime Minister’s view that it is a step backwards. However, importantly, in this place, we have a debate on these matters and we are able to vote according to our conscience.

[Rosie Duffield (Canterbury) (Lab)]

We are all agreed, as we have just heard, that actions speak louder than words. Can the Minister explain how Britain can continue to stand up practically for the rights of women and girls globally in light of the £1.9 billion cut to women’s aid programmes, or will she commit to reversing that cut today?

[Amanda Milling]

We have had many debates about our official development assistance spend. I can reassure the hon. Lady that, as she will be aware, the issue of women and girls is a key priority for the Foreign Secretary, as set out in the international development strategy last month, and sexual and reproductive health and rights are a key priority within that.

Refugee Communities: Covid-19

Rosie Duffield Excerpts

Thursday 12th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Rosie Duffield (Canterbury) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Rushanara Ali) on securing this important debate.

This year, especially during the first covid lockdown period, much has been said and written about people attempting to reach our UK shores by boat. That treacherous crossing covers 18 miles of water between mainland Europe and Dover. We have heard the comments from pundits and politicians who want to build walls, either physical brick barriers as favoured by a former President or floating marine fencing ideas, allegedly investigated by our own Government.

Whether through increasing patrols of our waters, putting people in cages, prison cells or detention centres indefinitely, or leaving them statusless and unable to work, join family or simply make a home, the narrative is clear: they are unwanted and unwelcome here. They are detained, locked up, cut off and encamped in muddy, disease-ridden, ramshackle, makeshift and flimsy canvas or cardboard shelters that are not fit for purpose, and not fit for families, for children and for pregnant women—not even for animals.

To everyone who has ever shared anti-immigrant hatred and fear on social media, I would like to say, “Imagine it was you. Imagine it was your family. Imagine that you knew that staying in their place of birth was so dangerous that it was better, safer and a little less horrifying to attempt to cross an incredibly lethal stretch of water in an unsafe boat—overcrowded, ill-equipped and with the chance of drowning a very real possibility.”

In countries such as ours, we seek thrills and recreate fear by taking up certain pursuits. We set ourselves challenges and push ourselves to the limits of our endurance. We leave our comfort zones and get up off our sofas, run marathons and fling ourselves out of helicopters, mostly to raise money for those we want to help, those less fortunate than ourselves. Refugees are, of course, much less fortunate, and they do not get to go back to their sofas after an adrenalin rush as we can. Every hour of every day lived in a war-torn country, those dangerous thrills that we seek are an unavoidable way of life. Dodging bombs and bullets, persecution, torture, prison or death sentences are real-life everyday scenarios. Every single day, someone may not return home safely from school or work. Every day can simply be a fight to stay alive.

When those people—having spent months, decades or a lifetime living with everyday danger and risks as well as death, fear, terror, pain and loss—decide that they cannot endure another day of that and step up the danger to unimaginable next levels by seeking to trust a stranger who they have heard might help them to get out, how can we blame them? They sell what they can, get hold of whatever money they can and put their lives and their families’ lives in the hands of anyone offering a route out.

The Government rightly talk about the vile practices and lack of humanity of people traffickers, the criminals and gangs seeking to profit from people’s suffering, but what is the alternative for those desperate enough to risk their lives? When they do, what awaits them if they survive the journey here? The covid pandemic has greatly increased an already significant backlog in processing asylum applications. Charities such as the excellent Kent Refugee Action Network, or KRAN, do their best to support young, mostly unaccompanied asylum seekers. Kent County Council is struggling to meet the housing needs of those needing urgent accommodation as there is not enough affordable housing across east Kent. This is a particular problem for young people when they reach the age of 21. Young people are isolated, facing the lack of a college place, often of any decent accommodation at all and of any help with language, and they have no way to connect online to learn or access services or to find missing family members.

With the proper support, young refugees can and will contribute much to our society. They want desperately to work, become British citizens, pay taxes and raise families like several generations before them. We have many examples of those who have come to Britain seeking asylum, fleeing terror or war. To name just two, one of the best of people, as we have heard before, is Lord Alf Dubs, an incredible man who has dedicated his life to the safety of children who, like him, had to escape to a new place; and Gulwali Passarlay, a former asylum seeker, is the author of “The Lightless Sky”.

I urge the Government to pledge directly to help those countries in dire need of aid so that we create fewer refugees, fewer homeless and displaced desperate people, and less of a food, insecurity and climate emergency, and to allow the still relatively tiny numbers of the most desperate people to seek asylum here and a safe new start.

Oral Answers to Questions

Rosie Duffield Excerpts

Tuesday 4th September 2018 Commons Chamber

[Rosie Duffield (Canterbury) (Lab)]

4. What recent discussions he has had with his EU counterparts on continued foreign policy co-operation after the UK has left the EU.

[Chris Stephens (Glasgow South West) (SNP)]

7. What discussions he had with his EU counterparts during the summer recess on diplomatic relations after the UK has left the EU.

[The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

Over the summer I visited seven EU countries and had substantive bilateral talks with 18 EU Foreign Ministers, and to all of them I said the same thing: if there is not a deal on our exit from the EU, Britain will find a way to survive and prosper, but it would be a big mistake for the continent of Europe, because at a time of great international upheaval, countries that share the same values should stand together.

[Rosie Duffield]

Last week, my hon. Friend the Member for Brent North (Barry Gardiner) met with the Port of Dover in my neighbouring constituency. The port, my colleagues, and all those dealing with trade matters in particular would appreciate clarification on whether other EU countries have signalled their willingness to collect tariffs on behalf of the UK and continue full co-operation with other EU agencies.

[Mr Hunt]

The facilitated customs arrangement is one of the issues being negotiated. Many discussions are happening between my colleague the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union and Michel Barnier, and we are starting to make progress, but there is a long way to go.

Refugees and Human Rights

Rosie Duffield Excerpts

Wednesday 24th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Rosie Duffield (Canterbury) (Lab)]

I think most of us here in the House entered politics to help to ease the suffering of others. We represent our individual constituencies, but as elected representatives of the United Kingdom, we have a wider duty too. It is that sense of wider duty that makes me speak today. I back the motion tabled by my great colleagues, calling upon the Government to stop turning their back on the reality faced by millions of dispossessed, injured, separated and suffering refugees across the world.

As an island nation, we have never really had to face millions fleeing into our country as other nations have and have done throughout history, but although the land we stand on may well be surrounded by sea, we must remember those famous words, “No man”—or woman—“is an island”. For each person who endures suffering and persecution anywhere in the world, we have a duty to help. Being part of mankind is to be just that: kind. As my colleagues have pointed out, there are now more refugees and displaced people around the world than at any time since the second world war. Untold millions have been killed, injured and displaced through recent wars, terrorism, extremism and sometimes unjustified military intervention.

In my constituency of Canterbury, which is one of the closest to Calais and the other refugee camps in France, there are some excellent groups, such as the Kent Refugee Action Network, working with people who arrive in our corner of England. We also have the Whitstable Calais Solidarity campaign and the excellent Refugee Tales, whose volunteers make sure that we hear the lost or forgotten voices of refugees. The young men and women I have met through those organisations often arrived here frightened, lonely and in need of kindness, welcome and care. I am humbled by the wonderful people of Kent who, through organisations such as these, offer their time, resources and expertise to help to settle people into a new place a long way from home. We as a nation are not overburdened by refugees. Refugees should never be seen as a burden. We must remember that more than eight refugees in 10 are being hosted by the world’s poorest countries. What must they think when they look across the seas to this land of relative plenty?

I went to a wonderful photography exhibition last year in Whitstable. The photographs were taken by a very talented constituent of mine, a photographer named Marcus Drinkwater. He spent a month on an Italian rescue boat in the Mediterranean, rescuing refugees from Libya whose boats had often been cast into international waters, without power, by the smugglers. His photographs capture the survivors, and indeed the terror of those crossings—I urge hon. Members to look online to find his work.

Smugglers set off from Libya in the darkest parts of the night. By around 8 am, their boats have reached international waters. The smugglers themselves go back to shore, leaving the boats choking full of people to be found drifting. What I remember most from Marcus’ exhibition is not the facts, but the determination and the terror in the eyes of his refugee subjects. Many of the people he photographed have been refugees since the Darfur crisis—since 2003. They have been without a place to call home for 15 years.

In Libya, the breakdown of effective government means that the rule of law has been absent for years. People escaping from parts of Africa further south are often captured by slave traders when they get to Libya. There are slave markets in car parks and public areas in Libya now. Young women are forced into prostitution to earn their freedom and their boat fare to Europe. I therefore join with my hon. Friends and colleagues here today in calling upon the Prime Minister and her Government to take more action—to offer more homes to more persecuted peoples and refugees from across the world. I urge the Government to lead international efforts through the United Nations and to allow Britain to set an example that other western nations can follow.