Detention of Jagtar Singh Johal

Hannah Bardell Excerpts

Wednesday 30th June 2021 Westminster Hall

[Hannah Bardell (Livingston) (SNP) [V]]

It is truly a pleasure to sum up this incredibly important debate on an issue that is very close to my heart. I declare an interest as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on deaths abroad, consular services and assistance.

First, I offer my deep and profound sympathies, as well as my solidarity, to the family of Jagtar. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for West Dunbartonshire (Martin Docherty-Hughes) on securing the debate and on all the work he has done to fight for Jagtar and his family. He has been utterly tireless.

Members have rightly spoken passionately in this debate about the rights of British citizens abroad, and what happens to them when they find themselves, through no fault of their own, killed, injured, incarcerated or—as in Jagtar’s case, although we have heard from many Members that the UK Government, shamelessly, will not recognise this—arbitrarily detained without trial, often by oppressive regimes that routinely breach or abuse human rights.

We should be absolutely clear about what the detention of Jagtar is. As my hon. Friend said, it is a flagrant breach of his human rights by the Indian authorities and Government, and they should be ashamed. It is vital that that message has gone out from all Members who have spoken in the debate today.

Jagtar has spent four years without a trial—four years away from his family in, as we know, appalling conditions, as my hon. Friend the Member for East Renfrewshire (Kirsten Oswald) highlighted. Seeing this through the prism of covid and the experiences that Jagtar has had in prison make the case all the more distressing and appalling. He is one of so many who are apart and isolated from their family and friends, and ultimately without the support they need from the UK Government. As the right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) said, this is an issue that should concern us all. If it can happen to Jagtar, it could happen to anybody.

Jagtar’s experience is, sadly, very familiar. As chair of the APPG, I took evidence from more than 60 families who had lost loved ones abroad or whose loved ones were incarcerated. We heard from a number of organisations, including Redress, who I know have given significant support to Jagtar’s family. The message was very clear, and there was a common theme. All the families we took evidence from felt terribly let down by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. They felt helpless and abandoned. The hon. Member for Warwick and Leamington (Matt Western) alighted on a key point that we heard from a number of families whose loved ones were incarcerated. This Conservative UK Government are putting trade deals before human rights and that should shame us all.

I worked in a consulate myself—I worked for the US Department of State in the consulate in Edinburgh—and I have seen at first hand how hard consular staff work. There may be many things that we can criticise the United States for, but one thing I learned from my experience was that they look after their own, without fear or favour. This Government could learn a lot from that.

I have also met consular staff and ambassadors who work for the FCDO. I know how hard they work and how difficult and challenging their job is. As my hon. Friend the Member for West Dunbartonshire also said, I know how hard they have worked for Jagtar and his family, but they are being cut to the bone and their resources are being drained by this Conservative Government.

In 2019, a report by the British Foreign Policy Group, which was backed by many prominent diplomats and former Foreign Secretaries, proved that funding of the diplomatic service was at its lowest in 20 years. In the last 30 years, staff have been cut by 1,000. That is hardly the advert for global Britain that the Conservative Government seem to punt left, right and centre. The reality is that the Government leave British citizens high and dry, because they do not give their staff or missions the funding and resource that they need. Not only are they abandoning British citizens; they are abandoning their own staff. The issue of consular assistance is a grey area. That is why I and others have called for a legal right to consular assistance, which would strengthen the rights of our citizens and make the Government have a legal responsibility to look after our citizens abroad.

The Government have to answer for their lack of action. As Members have said, they have to answer for the fact that the Prime Minister has met the Prime Minister of India and not raised the case of Jagtar. A Government’s first duty should be to look after their citizens in their time of need. Otherwise, what use or value does being a British citizen hold? Will the Government accept that Jagtar has been arbitrarily detained, according to the very clear international definition of arbitrary detention, and explain why they have failed to implement their own policy to seek the release of arbitrarily detained British citizens, as in Jagtar’s case?