UNHCR Syrian Refugees Programme

Richard Ottaway Excerpts

Wednesday 29th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Sir Richard Ottaway (Croydon South) (Con)]

The scale of the human tragedy in Syria is horrendous. More than 130,000 are dead, including thousands of children; there are documented cases of torture and summary execution; about 9.5 million men, women and children are in need of humanitarian help; and 2.3 million refugees, half of them children, are spilling into neighbouring countries—Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon. Those countries are absorbing 97% of the massive influx of refugees, and it is threatening their stability. Lebanon is on course to receive 1.6 million refugees by the end of this year, which, for that small country, is the equivalent of 20 million refugees coming to the United Kingdom. Terrorism is back in Iraq, which has witnessed a resurgence of al-Qaeda. The war in Syria is inflaming its own sectarian battles.

Every day in Syria, the death toll, the atrocities, and the numbers of displaced persons and refugees are climbing. Against that relentless backdrop, the UNHCR wants countries to take 30,000 Syrian refugees in addition to the current resettlement quotas. That is a drop in the ocean. The United Kingdom has taken more than 1,000 Syrian asylum seekers this year. We have committed ourselves to helping some of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees, and I welcome the Government’s announcement today, which confirmed that.

It is absolutely right for us not to commit ourselves to arbitrary numbers. A quota of 500, 1,000 or even 5,000 Syrian refugees may achieve much in humanitarian terms, but in overall terms it achieves very little, because it does not tackle the root cause of the problem. As the Home Secretary pointed out in her excellent speech, the only meaningful solution to the refugee crisis—the only way in which to secure a better future for countless innocent Syrians—is a political solution. The refugee crisis has to be considered as part of an overarching foreign policy, and not in isolation. Talks in Geneva this week show us how difficult a task that will be. There are about 1,200 different rebel groups in Syria who have no interest in negotiating. Our best hope of dialogue is of dialogue between Syria’s national coalition and the Government, but they will not talk face to face: self-interest is getting in the way.

With uncompromising preconditions being dished out on both sides, the scope of Geneva II is inevitably limited. Even the deal that was hammered out to aid trapped residents of the war-torn city of Homs now appears to be threatened. The rebel alliance on the ground has issued further demands which it says must be met before anyone can be evacuated. There is nothing new there—this is politics—but it is costing lives and livelihoods.

Whether we like it or not, political progress in Syria will never succeed without directly engaging the puppeteers of this war of attrition. If Iran and the Gulf states withdrew their cash and supplies of arms on the Syrian battlefield, refugees would have some prospect of a safe return. We must stop the supplies of deadly arms, and put pressure on the armed militias that are terrorising Syrian communities. The United States and Russia have discussed a ceasefire in Syria, and only a ceasefire will make the delivery of humanitarian aid to the besieged, rebel-held areas possible as the civil war intensifies. That has already happened in some parts of the country, but millions are still trapped and under siege, and beyond the reach of help.

We have our work cut out for us in trying to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches those who really need it. That may well mean allowing the regime to transport food and medical equipment to areas that it controls, no matter how unpalatable discussions with it may be. Better systems should be introduced to improve the conditions of refugees in camps: reports of domestic violence, sexual abuse and rape from camps on the border are sickening, and more needs to be done.

I am proud that the Government are leading by example. The United Kingdom is the world’s second largest bilateral aid donor, and British taxpayers’ money is providing food, shelter, water and medicine for hundreds of thousands of people. However, we should be urging other countries to carry their fair share of funding the effort in Syria. They should be contributing more to the humanitarian effort where the refugees need our help most. Given that there are more than 2 million of them now and that the number is expected to increase to 4 million in the coming year, calling on the UK to agree to a fixed number seriously misses the point.