Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the impact on humanitarian access to north-east Syria of the closure of the border crossing with the Kurdistan region of Iraq on 15 December 2021.

We are engaging with our aid partners in north east Syria, who are responding to disruptions to their operations, where they assess 1.8 million are in need of humanitarian assistance. The closure carries a greater impact given the spread of the Omicron Covid variant and there are a number of critical humanitarian supplies in the pipeline affected by the closure, including medical supplies for health facilities, materials for rehabilitating drinking water and irrigation infrastructure, and wheat seeds. The UK continues to advocate for increased cross-border access across all of northern Syria and supports the resumption of passage for humanitarian personnel and life-saving humanitarian supplies.