Safety of Humanitarian Workers: Conflict Zones

Debate between Tom Morrison and Alistair Carmichael

Wednesday 30th April 2025 Westminster Hall

[Mr Tom Morrison (Cheadle) (LD)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the safety of humanitarian workers in conflict zones.

It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. I thank those who have attended the debate and the Minister for his presence, which is greatly appreciated. Today, we face more conflicts across the world than at any point since world war two. Some 343 million people face hunger and starvation, while one in six children—473 million—live in conflict zones or are displaced, which is the most in recorded history. Despite the dangers, there are an estimated half a million workers in these areas attempting to support those who desperately need it. Rather than running away from the danger, they are running towards it, in an attempt to provide aid, shelter and support to people in need. We should be celebrating them, but instead, we are letting them down.

Last year, 2024, was the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers, with at least 325 aid workers killed. The majority of those were killed in Gaza. However, the crisis spans across multiple conflict zones, with recorded attacks on aid workers in areas such as Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen, Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia.

Despite being protected under international humanitarian law, these workers are under daily threat from conflict violence such as shelling and shootings. They often face violent intimidation, and there have been several incidents of kidnapping and the use of sexual violence against them. While this happens, the agencies and organisations impacted cannot speak, whether that is due to fear of reprisals or worry that their funding will be cut and access blocked. Many of the people I spoke to while preparing for this debate did so under the condition of anonymity. They need a voice, and today I hope the House can provide one.

Members will be aware of the awful killing of 15 paramedics and rescue workers on 23 March in Rafah. The bodies of the workers were found buried in shallow graves a week later next to their vehicles, which had been crushed. While the Israeli military were quick to claim that they had fired on “suspicious vehicles” driving in the dark without emergency lights or headlights on, video footage released of the attack showed that those claims were false, and that not only were the emergency lights on and flashing, but the drivers left the vehicles as the gunfire started. The Israeli military have since investigated the incident and conceded that there was an “operational misunderstanding” and

“a breach of orders during a combat setting”,

which led to the killings. However, there has still been no independent investigation into the incident.

People will not have missed the significance of the fact that the attack on Red Crescent workers came almost a year to the day after the World Central Kitchen aid convoy attack in April 2024, which took the lives of seven aid workers, three of them British citizens. In that tragic incident, the convoy’s route had been co-ordinated in advance, but the co-ordinates were misidentified.

The humanitarian notification system is used to alert parties in conflict zones to the location of aid and humanitarian workers and their facilities, in order to protect workers in conflict zones. One agency told me how the system used in Gaza is completely inadequate and often ignored. They said:

“At this point we are using the HNS as an accountability measure, not a protective one”.

Another worker who supported a charity working in the refugee camps around the occupied territories of Palestine described to me how the camps he worked in were managed, with no armed support or protection. There had been times when he and the team he was with were completely outnumbered by people clambering for help and support—they were desperate, so naturally things became fevered and chaotic. He said:

“The safest I felt was when I was in the hotel two hours away, surrounded by metal detectors and armed guards. But during the day I was in the camps, with no support or guards in sight—we were completely alone and forgotten”.

A further aid worker told me:

“When you congregate groups of people your chance of being targeted increases massively. We do our best to limit numbers but every single one of our beneficiaries and us…are placed inadvertently at risk whenever we work.”

The picture these workers paint tells a similar story time and again: that humanitarian workers are often alone and unsupported, with no way to defend themselves.

Now known as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, Sudan’s war has seen over 12 million people displaced and over 30 million people needing humanitarian aid. However, more than 387 aid workers have been killed in Sudan over the past five years, with a large proportion of them being national workers. In the last year, 18 workers have been kidnapped. There is mounting evidence that those attacks were deliberately targeted, including aerial bombardments, attacks on refugee camps and violent incidents against local responders.

Islamic Relief, which has offices in the area, has had to relocate several times. One person told me that

“each move was a desperate escape from advancing militias, looters and gunmen. Roads were lined with armed checkpoints, towns were besieged, our office in Sennar even became a target.”

Because of that, many aid agencies are now pausing or suspending their operations in Sudan, leading to a worsening of the humanitarian crisis. I could go on with examples, each worse and more harrowing than the last.

[Mr Alistair Carmichael (Orkney and Shetland) (LD)]

My hon. Friend is making a significant speech on something that should concern us all. Does he agree that wherever these abuses are found, whether in Gaza, Sudan or any other theatre, they do not happen by accident? They happen because forces such as the Israeli Defence Forces, for example, are effectively given licence to do this by their Government. That is why, on a Government-to-Government basis, there is something that this country can actively do to make it clear to the Governments responsible for this treatment that it is not acceptable, and that we will take action to highlight their abuse and remove support from them.