Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make representations to UN bodies and the Syrian Government on humanitarian access to and urgent medical evacuations from Eastern Ghouta and other besieged areas in Syria.

DFID’s humanitarian partners are on the ground in Eastern Ghouta (as well as other hard-to-reach and besieged areas) providing life-saving food, protection, and healthcare including routine immunisation services against infectious diseases such as polio and measles. However, humanitarian access remains severely constrained.

The UK continues to demand full and sustained humanitarian access to Eastern Ghouta at the UN and at every opportunity, and we have called on all parties to take all feasible measures to protect civilians, and allow emergency medical evacuations.