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Afghanistan Humanitarian Crisis: UK Response
09 February 2022
Lead MP
Vicky Ford
Debate Type
Ministerial Statement
Tags
Foreign Affairs
Other Contributors: 28
At a Glance
Vicky Ford raised concerns about afghanistan humanitarian crisis: uk response in the House of Commons. A government minister responded. Other MPs also contributed.
How the Debate Unfolded
MPs spoke in turn to share their views and ask questions. Here's what each person said:
Government Statement
The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan remains deeply concerning, with the UN requesting nearly $4.5 billion for 2022. The UK has pledged £97 million of humanitarian assistance and aims to double aid to £286 million by the end of March. As of January, over £176 million has been disbursed. This funding supports over 60 hospitals, providing health services for more than 300 million people, ensuring food assistance for 4.47 million people through the World Food Programme, and will provide emergency aid to 6.1 million individuals. The UK is supporting international efforts to address economic challenges, including lack of liquidity, and has played a key role in pressing for a humanitarian exemption under UN sanctions.
Andrew Mitchell
Con
Sutton Coldfield
Question
Critiques the current aid level as insufficient, citing stark humanitarian conditions and urging for more UK leadership in international efforts. Suggests hosting the UN pledging conference and reinstating dedicated officials from DfID to lead these initiatives.
Minister reply
The Minister reiterates that £286 million will be spent by the end of March, supporting the UN donor conference on 31 March. She emphasises UK leadership in enabling humanitarian aid through UN Security Council resolutions and encourages World Bank efforts to repurpose the Afghanistan reconstruction trust fund.
David Lammy
Lab
Tottenham
Question
The MP thanked his right hon. Friend for securing an urgent question, criticised the Government's response to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, noting that despite warnings of a catastrophe, the UK’s financial support for Afghanistan is at pre-disaster levels, with no commitment yet made towards additional UN-asked funds. He urged the Minister for communications with European counterparts on hosting a global pledging conference and freeing up funds from the World Bank.
Minister reply
The Minister emphasised that the UK has announced and spent more than £176 million in aid, supporting over 60 hospitals and providing health services to over 300,000 people. By March, aid will reach £286 million, with an additional £97 million pledged earlier this year. The UK is also working with the UN on a donor-led conference scheduled for March 31.
Roger Gale
Con
Herne Bay and Sandwich
Question
The MP asked how the Minister can work with the Ministry of Defence to practically provide not simply hard cash but food, tents, clothes, and other necessities immediately, given that Afghanistan's harsh winter has already set in.
Minister reply
The Minister mentioned working through various organisations such as the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund, World Food Programme, International Organisation for Migration, United Nations Population Fund, and others to provide aid. She also highlighted meetings with Afghan women and leaders to inform policies.
Dave Doogan
SNP
Angus and Perthshire Glens
Question
The MP questioned why the FCDO cannot find a fraction of the £28 billion spent on military operations in Afghanistan to support the UN’s emergency famine appeal, given that only £176 million out of a committed £286 million has been provided so far.
Minister reply
The Minister stated that UK funding is supporting 4.47 million people and efforts are being made to unlock World Bank funds and encourage other countries to step up in aid provision.
Question
The MP suggested recognising the Taliban to help urgent funding reach Afghanistan, pointing out that the UK had handed responsibility to an insurgency knowing it would lead to economic collapse.
Minister reply
The Minister acknowledged pragmatic engagement with the Taliban at official levels on humanitarian issues and mentioned officials discussing the situation for aid delivery.
Debbie Abrahams
Lab
Oldham East and Saddleworth
Question
The MP asked if the Minister would commit to a comprehensive statement in Parliament after recess detailing an international and domestic response.
Minister reply
The Minister reiterated that UK funding supports 4.47 million people and efforts are ongoing with UN partners for aid delivery.
Robert Jenrick
Reform
Newark
Question
The MP suggested instructing the Treasury, Financial Conduct Authority, or Bank of England to issue guidance to British banks on sanctions exemptions as issued by US Treasury.
Minister reply
The Minister said she would take up her right hon. Friend’s suggestion with the responsible Minister.
Barry Sheerman
Con
Harrow West
Question
Let me cut to the chase with the Minister and say that she knows what we must do if we are going to deliver the food to stop this crisis for children. The pictures of children begging, obviously with no food, really gets to all of us, does it not? I have to say to the Minister that she is aware—surely she is aware—that if we are going to get in this food and this help, we have to work with the major international charities. A member of my family is in a very senior role in one of those big agencies. Will she promise me that she will talk to the leaders of those key organisations—she knows who they are—and say, “Are you getting enough resources to deliver on the ground?”? Will she promise to do that today?
Minister reply
The funding we are giving is being channelled through many different organisations, including UN organisations such as the World Food Programme, and through the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs into local organisations too. My colleague, the noble Lord responsible for this area, meets them regularly to discuss any blockages in getting the food there. It is a really challenging and heartbreaking situation—everybody understands that—and my colleague is meeting them regularly. That is the way this is currently being funded to make sure that the funding is going not through Government or Taliban organisations, but through those humanitarian aid organisations.
James Sunderland
Lab
Workington
Question
The Minister will know that true political influence comes from having a physical presence. Could she please confirm what the FCDO physically has on the ground in Kabul, and whether that footprint will increase?
Minister reply
I am afraid I am not at liberty to discuss individual situations, especially those of local charities, for example, because I have been told that to do so could put them at risk.
Yasmin Qureshi
Lab
Bolton South and Walkden
Question
The former Secretary of State for International Development Rory Stewart said yesterday: “It’s unbelievable that an international coalition which could find 130BN dollars a year for Afghanistan when fighting there, cannot find 5 per cent of that amount to prevent millions of Afghans from starving. The West abandoned Afghanistan to the Taliban in August. Now it is abandoning Afghans to starvation. Betrayal follows betrayal.” Can I ask the Minister what the UK Government have done in real terms, working with the international community, to really help prevent the starvation of the Afghan people?
Minister reply
As I have already said from this Dispatch Box, the aid we have allocated since October is supporting 4.47 million people to get emergency food assistance through the World Food Programme, as well as supporting 60 hospitals and 300,000 people with health services. We are working with various UN agencies, including the World Food Programme, to make sure that that is delivered, and we are fully supportive of the UN donor conference, which it has announced will be held on 31 March.
Flick Drummond
Con
Stroud
Question
Alongside the humanitarian issues are many concerns about women. Four women—Parwana Khil, Tamana Paryani, Mursal Ayar and Zahra Mohammadi—have just been seized off the street and imprisoned, and everybody is incredibly worried about them. Does the Minister have any information on their whereabouts, because we are concerned about their safety?
Minister reply
I thank my hon. Friend for that, and I would be more than happy to follow up with an answer following this urgent question. Since Operation Pitting ended, we have also supported more than 3,000 people to leave Afghanistan or to move from third countries to the UK, so we are continuing to help relocate people.
Layla Moran
Lib Dem
Oxford West and Abingdon
Question
The Minister mentions Operation Pitting. An Afghan gentleman came to my surgery in agony: his family have not left the house or seen daylight for months and he is worried about what is happening to his country. To add insult to injury, the leave to enter for the 15,000 Afghans who are now here expires at the end of this month. When we add all that strife together, their mental health is suffering. Will the Minister guarantee now at the Dispatch Box that by the end of this month all those Afghans who came here will be given leave to remain?
Minister reply
As the hon. Lady knows, the Home Office Minister—the Minister for Afghan Resettlement—leads on that subject, so I suggest we raise that with her. Significant cross-Government effort has been under way to ensure that the thousands of Afghans who have been evacuated to the UK receive the support they need to rebuild their lives.
Johnny Mercer
Con
Stoke-on-Trent North
Question
What is happening in Afghanistan today is a catastrophe of epic proportions. For those who committed so much to that country, particularly the families of the servicemen and women who lost their lives, the Government’s current trajectory makes their lives harder, not easier, in dealing with that sacrifice. I urge the Government to think again. If we can commit £30 billion to a military project such as Afghanistan, it is obscene that we cannot commit more than 5% in foreign aid to rebuilding that country and saving as many lives as we can, having invested so much over so long.
Minister reply
My hon. and gallant Friend is absolutely right. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the 150,000 people who served in Afghanistan and, in particular, to the 457 who so sadly lost their lives and the many others who had life-changing injuries. For 20 years they denied terrorists a safe haven from which to launch attacks against the UK, and enabled development that improved the lives of many millions of people in Afghanistan. I remind him that the UK funding going in at the moment is helping to feed more than 4 million people. It is a very tragic situation but that funding is going through, and we are working with others and pressing to unlock the funds at the World Bank and the support of the donor conference.
Hilary Benn
Lab
Leeds Central
Question
Do the Government recognise that this catastrophe will continue to unfold before our eyes unless the Afghan banking system starts working again? In particular, do the Government support the release of frozen Afghan central bank reserves to restore inter-bank lending? On donor funds, whether they are held by the World Bank or being asked for from donors around the world, do the Minister and all those involved understand that we need speed? It may be complex, but people starving or having to sell their children are not interested in complexity; they want help now. A meeting later this month or next month is, frankly, too late.
Minister reply
As I have said, we are closely monitoring the economic situation, especially the lack of liquidity, and we are working urgently with partners to seek solutions, including calling for that money to be released from the World Bank.
Mark Logan
Con
Broadstairs
Question
Afghanistan has been dependent on foreign aid and FDI since time immemorial. Indeed, my constituency neighbour, the hon. Member for Bolton South East (Yasmin Qureshi), who is no longer in her place, referred to the former Member for Penrith and The Border and the need for at least 5% funding immediately. Western Governments got Afghanistan wrong last August, 10 years ago and 20 years ago. As we look to the future, what will UK-Afghanistan relations and strategy look like?
Minister reply
It is an enormously complicated situation. We are engaging with the Taliban at official level, especially on the humanitarian situation and human rights. We are currently focused on ensuring that our committed funds are getting to the 4 million-plus people we are supporting with food aid and other aid, encouraging the return of girls to education when schools go back in March, and doing everything we can to encourage the international community to step forward and address the current situation, which is indeed very serious.
Dan Jarvis
Lab
Barnsley North
Question
Further to the point made by my friend the right hon. Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood), I suspect that the Minister saw the comments from General Lord Richards, who called on the west to come to terms with the Taliban being the Government in Afghanistan. None of us wanted that outcome, but innocent people are starving and freezing to death and it feels like we are sleepwalking into a catastrophe. Will she look again at what more can be done to unfreeze state assets, lift sanctions and restart the Afghan economy, in order to give people in Afghanistan some sense of hope for the future?
Minister reply
On sanctions, as I said, we have already made progress as the humanitarian exemption that came into UK law on 27 January has helped to unlock funding. On whether we should recognise the Taliban, we have a long-standing policy of recognising states, not Governments, and the Prime Minister has been clear that if the Taliban want international acceptance, they must abide by international norms. However, that does not stop us from engaging at official level, especially on humanitarian issues.
Alberto Costa
Con
South Leicestershire
Question
The Afghan citizens resettlement scheme is one of the most generous such schemes in this country’s history. However, while some local authorities are providing homes—they are ready and available—there appear to be delays from the Home Office in processing and matching them to Afghans resettled through the scheme. Will the Minister please ask the Minister for Afghan Resettlement to write to me with an update specifically on the properties offered by Blaby District Council?
Minister reply
Yes.
Karen Buck
Lab
Walthamstow
Question
Not only does famine kill, but starvation and malnutrition will scar the bodies and brains of a generation and beyond. Every day that we delay means that recovery will be more expensive than acting now. We need cash in the system and the Afghan economy. If the World Bank could release reconstruction funds today, how quickly could that cash be flowing through the Afghan economy?
Minister reply
I completely agree that it is important to keep money flowing through the Afghan economy and, as I said, we are working with the World Bank on that. On 25 January—a couple of weeks ago—the UK also supported the Asian Development Bank with a £405 million support package for the Afghan people, funded from the Asian Development Fund.
Bob Blackman
Con
Harrow East
Question
Suggests the need for a confidential facility via the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for MPs to feed in details of UK citizens trapped in Afghanistan who are under threat from the Taliban.
Minister reply
Confirms ongoing efforts to support people leaving Afghanistan; suggests raising issues with the Home Office regarding resettlement schemes.
Question
Asks about international action and World Bank's role in reconstructing the Afghan economy to address starvation.
Minister reply
States ongoing efforts are being made, including working with the World Bank and UN to ensure access to currency.
Question
Calls for urgent action to cut through bureaucracy and get food into Afghanistan immediately.
Minister reply
Acknowledges urgency; confirms funding is going towards support but calls on other nations to step up their contributions.
Seema Malhotra
Lab Co-op
Feltham and Heston
Question
Asks for quicker and more urgent action from the international community, including facilitating evacuation and resettlement of at-risk Afghans.
Minister reply
Suggests using soft power to bring together the international community; ARAP scheme remains open for applications.
Question
Inquires about support provided to ex-pats and diaspora groups sending remittances and maintaining communication with communities on the ground.
Minister reply
Confirms regular meetings between aid organisations and Afghan leaders, including women's rights advocates.
Kim Leadbeater
Lab
Spen Valley
Question
Asks about coordination of a global plan to keep local schools, clinics, and hospitals running.
Minister reply
Confirms ongoing efforts to provide aid for 6 million people; emphasises importance of ensuring children, especially girls, return to school.
Question
Questions the disparity between spending on war vs. aid despite humanitarian crisis and moral obligation.
Minister reply
Acknowledges difficult situation but highlights Operation Pitting's success; urges contributions from other countries.
Rachael Maskell
Lab Co-op
York Central
Question
Critiques the inadequacy of current aid efforts and calls for more action.
Minister reply
Offers to facilitate roundtable meetings with recommended contacts; highlights ongoing UK aid efforts.
Jim Shannon
DUP
Strangford
Question
Asks about ensuring food reaches Christians and ethnic minorities who are at the bottom of Taliban assistance.
Minister reply
Suggests contacting specific organisations through UNOCHA; offers to facilitate meetings with relevant Ministers.
Shadow Comment
Andrew Mitchell
Shadow Comment
The shadow response criticises the current level of aid as insufficient. It highlights that although £286 million is welcome, it's unclear over what period and whether it's new funding. The speaker emphasises the dire humanitarian situation reported by journalists and charities, with up to 90% of Afghans lacking adequate food, prompting a call for more UK leadership in international efforts, including hosting the UN pledging conference. Mitchell advocates for the reinstatement of dedicated officials from the Department for International Development to lead these initiatives.
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