Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to provide support to victims of gender-based violence in the Rakhine state.

DFID (and the FCO) are urgently speaking with humanitarian organisations and UN agencies, including the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative, to assess the level of support being provided for survivors of sexual violence currently in Cox’s Bazar. In Bangladesh we will provide counselling and psychological support for over 10,000 women suffering from the trauma of war and over 2,000 survivors of sexual violence. Aid workers have been getting UK-funded humanitarian assistance to more than 80,000 people in parts of Rakhine State in Burma in the areas affected by the violence, but have no access currently.