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From
House of Commons Hansard 11th November 2005
Adjournment Debate
Mr. Sadiq Khan
(Tooting) (Lab):
I am grateful for the opportunity to raise the south Asian
earthquake disaster that is slowly but surely turning into a
catastrophe. I am grateful, too, to my hon. Friend the
Under-Secretary of State for International Development for
being here to respond, as I know that he has a personal
interest, as do many of his constituents, who have raised
thousands and thousands of pounds to help the victims of the
earthquake disaster in Pakistan, India and Kashmir.
My hon. Friends
the Members for Glasgow, Central (Mr. Sarwar) and for
Dewsbury (Mr. Malik) recently visited the affected areas
with me as part of a delegation, with the UK charity Helping
Hands and the Limbless Association in the UK, of which the
hon. Member for Putney (Justine Greening), among others, is
well aware. I can honestly say that the four days we spent
in Pakistan and Kashmir were four of the most harrowing days
of my life. The places we visited included Abbotabad,
Mensera, Bagh, Balakot and the Chathara plain, and the
scenes were unbelievable. The stark facts speak for
themselves. More than 73,276 are dead; more than 69,260
people are wounded; 3.3 million people are homeless; 1.3
million have lost their livelihoods; 15,000 villages,
hamlets and townships are devastated; 6,000 schools are
destroyed; 364 medical facilities are destroyed; and I could
go on.
Those are not just
figures. That part of south Asia is like a war zone. Those
figures are real people, just like us, our families and our
constituents. I met three-year-old, four-year-old,
six-year-old, and nine-year-old children who are amputees,
with a leg missing or an arm missing. Children have been
orphaned. Grandparents have been traumatised by seeing their
entire family—children and grandchildren—wiped out.
Ancestral homes have been destroyed. Children and adults are
still in a physical state of shock more than three weeks
after the earthquake, because of what they witnessed.
Aftershocks have caused roads that had been cleared to be
blocked again by landslides. Again, I could go on.
I met heroic
British citizens helping in the disaster zone, relief
workers, British doctors, BT engineers, British nurses,
Department for International Development staff, RAF Chinook
pilots and personnel, and others doing their best to help.
Of course, disasters emergency committee organisations are
doing a great job, including Islamic Relief, Save the
Children, the British Red Cross, Oxfam, Merlin, Christian
Aid, World Vision and many more. Less heard-of British
charities are also doing a brilliant job, including Helping
Hands, Muslim Hands, Muslim Aid and others.
I pay tribute to
the British public and the British Government. Ordinary
members of our communities have been phenomenally generous
with their donations, and often it is the poorest in our
constituencies who have been the most generous in giving
charity. More than £30 million was raised from the British
public alone in the first three weeks after the earthquake.
Our Government, too, have punched above their weight, and
the Pakistani Government and the people we met are very
grateful for the help that we have given and have seen the
benefits of the £33 million that we have donated. British
expertise, British helicopters and British equipment have
been out there from day one, and I pay tribute to those
concerned.
There has been a
silver lining to the earthquake disaster. President
Musharraf has announced that Pakistan will postpone the
purchase of F-16 aircraft from the USA in the light of the
disaster facing Pakistan and the region. We have also seen
continued improvements in relations between India and
Pakistan, which have led to the line of command being opened
at five separate places. However, as I said earlier, the
disaster is quickly and surely turning into a catastrophe.
The British and
other western media have lost interest and I am concerned
that the full scale of the horror will not become known in
the western world. The United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that the number of
casualties continues to rise as new areas are accessed. Up
to 30 per cent. of the earthquake affected areas remain
inaccessible. Some 250,000 people are above the snow line
and face a life-threatening situation.
UNICEF estimates
that more than 32,000 children may have died and that there
are tens of thousands of children who are now in peril due
to deteriorating weather, injury and illness. There are
120,000 children in the mountains still waiting for help, of
whom 10,000 could die of hunger, hypothermia and disease
within the next few weeks.
Mr. Philip
Hollobone (Kettering) (Con):
I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing an Adjournment
debate on this important subject and on the words that he
has addressed to the House. Does he share my concern about
the lack of helicopter airlift capability in this and other
disasters? That has meant that we are only just discovering
the true horror of the earthquake in the region, because no
one has been able to get there. The recent UN humanitarian
response review report looked at the issue of improving
airlift capacity. Will the hon. Gentleman join me in urging
the Government to have an urgent review of this country's
ability to provide helicopters?
Mr. Khan:
I am grateful
for that intervention. The hon. Gentleman may be aware that
my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for
International Development and my hon. Friend the Minister
have ensured that the UK Government have done their share.
For example, I met the pilots of three Chinook helicopters
who were doing three sorties a day, which was way more than
their counterparts. The hon. Gentleman raises an important
point about ensuring that we are prepared for future
disasters, and my hon. Friend the Minister will have heard
his concern.
Islamic Relief
also expressed concern about the disaster. It said that the
prospect of a second wave of death looms over the survivors
as thousands of injured people remain stranded without
access to food, shelter and sanitation. Helicopters play a
vital role in alleviating some of that suffering.
It is with shame
and anger that I tell the House that the international
community is failing to provide a global solution to this
global catastrophe. The earthquake was not preventable, but
further deaths in the days and weeks afterwards were. It is
useful to compare and contrast the present disaster with the
tsunami disaster that occurred almost a year ago, on Boxing
day 2004, but I should point out that I do not criticise the
help that we or the international community gave to those
affected. The tsunami affected 1 million people: the
Pakistan, India and Kashmiri earthquake has made 4 million
people homeless. The tsunami affected flat coastal areas
that were easy to reach: the earthquake was in rugged,
mountainous terrain. After the tsunami, there was moderate
weather in all the areas affected: temperatures in the
earthquake zone have already dropped to freezing point and
snowfall has started. In the case of the tsunami, 4,000
helicopters were made available by foreign countries in
days: the earthquake region has received 70, and the
Pakistani Government and the UN can no longer afford the
fuel to make optimal use of them. In the case of the
tsunami, 80 per cent. of the aid pledged by the
international community to the UN was realised in two weeks:
more than four weeks after the earthquake, Pakistan has
received 12 per cent. of the promised aid.
There is a stark
contrast in the scale of the international response to the
UN appeal in each case. I said that I was angry and ashamed
and I shall explain why. After the tsunami, international
donors pledged more than $700 million for immediate
emergency relief in the first two weeks alone; 79 per cent.
of the UN appeal was met within two weeks, whereas more than
a month after the earthquake, only $131 million had been
pledged—only 24 per cent. of the UN appeal. Unless the
Government take a lead in the international community, I
truly fear that children, adults and elderly people will die
from starvation, cold and disease—avoidable deaths.
Pakistan needs
help. India, because of the numbers affected, is coping well
by herself. Pakistan needs tents, other shelter, food,
medicine, blankets, helicopters, fuel and more. In addition
to the specialist help that DFID is giving, I have been
advised that the best thing we can do is to provide urgent
cash assistance so that the relief experts and agencies on
the ground can spot-purchase what is required locally.
Ms Dawn Butler
(Brent, South) (Lab):
I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important
debate. Will he join me in congratulating UNICEF on its
efforts to ensure that collections are co-ordinated?
Although the media have not pursued things as vigorously as
we would like, should not we appeal to the public to
continue to collect funds and maintain a co-ordinated
approach through UNICEF?
Mr. Khan:
I am grateful
to my hon. Friend; she is right. The relief agencies are
amazing. I met people who should be treated as heroes:
UNICEF, Save the Children, Islamic Relief, Helping Hands and
others are doing a fantastic job. But we have never seen a
disaster on that scale, so even with the best will in the
world and the best planning and organisation it was
impossible to be as organised at the outset as we should
have liked. It is now five weeks later, however, and we know
the scale of the disaster so it is important to try to take
steps to address it.
What can we do? In
the short term, the priorities are clearly the emergency
rescue and relief that have been mentioned. We also need
early rehabilitation and reconstruction help, and I shall
explain how I hope that our Government can help. First, on
19th November, a donors conference will be held in Pakistan.
The UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, will attend and will
ask for help from the international community. I hope that
our Government do as they have always done and take the lead
in putting pressure on other Governments to do more.
Secondly, eight
weeks are left of our presidency of the European Union and
of the G8. Over the past few months, we have seen how much
we could do, by leading from the front, to make poverty
history: an example of Britain using her influence and
expertise to persuade other countries to do more. I urge our
Government to use the influence and reputation that they
have gained as president of the EU and the G8 to do much
more; for example, we could persuade the EU to include
Pakistan in its generalised system of preferences plus.
Thirdly, we could
offer the same type of trade concessions as were rightly
given to the areas affected by the tsunami disaster. We need
to ensure that we help Pakistan stand on her own feet. Yes,
Pakistan needs help immediately, but her people want fair
trade. They do not want handouts; they prefer to earn their
way out of the crisis. Every billion dollars of exports
translates into 300,000 jobs in Pakistan, which has an
impact on 1.5 million people, and shows how people can help
themselves to recover from catastrophe.
I subscribe to the
view that a society is judged by how it treats its most
vulnerable members. As a member of the international family,
we should be judged by how the victims of the earthquake
disaster in south Asia are treated. I sincerely hope that
DFID and the Government will lead the way in showing just
how civilised and just we are.
The Parliamentary
Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Mr.
Gareth Thomas):
I congratulate my
hon. Friend the Member for Tooting (Mr. Khan) on securing
this important debate. I also congratulate him and other
hon. Friends on taking the time to visit the region to see
for themselves the scale of the tragedy that is unfolding in
Pakistan, and for ensuring that the attention of the House
continues to be drawn to the disaster, even though
international media attention may have begun to diminish. I
join my hon. Friend in paying tribute to the generosity of
the British public and the many British-based
non-governmental organisations operating in the area.
Since the
earthquake struck, with such devastating effect, on 8
October, the scale of the tragedy has become starkly and
increasingly clear to us all. The Government of Pakistan's
latest figures report that more than 73,000 people lost
their life—other estimates put the figure higher, at some
87,000—with some 69,000 people suffering injury. In
Indian-administered Kashmir, the death toll is reported at
over 1,300 people, and some 4,500 people are reported to
have been injured. In total, some 3.5 million people are
affected, of whom 2.5 million have lost their homes. The
200,000 people living in difficult-to-access areas,
including those above the snow line, are, as my hon. Friend
rightly said, at particular risk as winter approaches. The
priority now must be to ensure that those who survived the
disaster receive the assistance that they require to support
them through the winter months.
The principal
objective of our response to the earthquake so far has been
to support the immediate survival needs of the affected
population and to continue the support into the spring, or
longer if necessary. To date, we have allocated some £33
million of assistance for the immediate relief effort. We
recognise the need for the international community to do
more. Overall, I have to say, international assistance for
the relief phase to date has been disappointing. We are the
second largest donor to the relief effort. We are prepared
to provide additional assistance while also urging other
donors to increase their support to the relief needs at this
critical point.
Our immediate
assistance has included search and rescue teams; indeed, the
first international search and rescue team to arrive in the
affected areas was a British-based NGO whose visit we helped
to fund. In addition to search and rescue, we have provided
priority relief materials including tents, blankets and
tarpaulins. We have helped to fund air transport, including
helicopters, and programmed support to various United
Nations agencies, to the Red Cross movement and to a series
of non-governmental organisations. As part of our support to
NGOs we have been funding flights for the UK's Disasters
Emergency Committee. Indeed, to date we have funded some 65
flights for agencies of the DEC, costing some £3 million. In
addition, £3 million of the £5 million that we have given to
NGOs has gone to DEC agencies. Our aim is to ensure that the
funding raised by the Disasters Emergency Committee from the
British public, which I was pleased to learn today has risen
to some £37 million, is spent on material and direct
assistance rather than the commercial cost—which we are
meeting—of the flights to send supplies to the affected
region.
As I said, I
greatly appreciate the valuable efforts made by the public
and concerned people the length and breadth of Britain who
want to respond to this terrible disaster. Wherever
possible, we have sought to use available space on the
aircraft for other agencies, and we have encouraged the
Disasters Emergency Committee to collaborate with other
charities that want to send support. By way of example, we
provided support to Islamic Relief, providing it with the
funding for some 10,000 tarpaulins, 20,000 blankets and
1,000 winterised family tents from the supplies of the
Department for International Development, and have funded
two Islamic Relief flights under the DEC airlift support
that I alluded to earlier. Islamic relief is just one of
many British-based NGOs doing a fantastic job in responding
to the disaster.
The European
Community's Humanitarian Office has contributed about £9.2
million to the relief effort and the European Commission has
already pledged some £54 million towards longer-term
rehabilitation and reconstruction. The UK's share of that
assistance is around £11 million.
However, as my
hon. Friend rightly made clear, the immediate situation
remains critical. According to the Pakistani authorities,
some 315,000 tents have already been distributed. The
Government of Pakistan and the United Nations are confident
that up to 300,000 tents will be delivered by the end of the
month, but more and continuing assistance is needed.
The United Nations
has developed a humanitarian action plan for November to
target assistance to an estimated 200,000 individuals in the
high valleys, as well as 150,000 people who are expected to
settle in both spontaneously organised and planned camps.
The focus of that plan is on emergency shelter, medical
evacuations, the pre-positioning of food assistance for
700,000 people and the maintenance of mobile health units
and vaccination services.
Lyn Brown (West
Ham) (Lab):
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for talking about what we
have done so far. People in the communities in my
constituency have spoken to me about the plight that my hon.
Friend the Member for Tooting (Mr. Khan) has outlined today.
My anxiety relates to the fact that we have all read in the
newspapers about the escalating current need and how the
money that has been pledged will simply not save those
people. What more can we do in the House and outside to take
the aid that is so desperately needed to those families and
children?
Mr. Thomas:
My hon. Friend
is right to suggest that more needs to be done, and I shall
come to her specific question shortly.
It is crucial,
however, that we continue to support the UN in the
development of the humanitarian action plan to meet the
immediate needs of those in difficult-to-reach communities.
That plan, as well as what I have indicated already,
includes the construction of 30 camps, the repair of vital
damaged water supply systems and the installation of
latrines, the establishment of temporary schools and the
provision of heating and cooking facilities for 150,000
people in camps. Given the difficult access considerations,
the plan also sets out the critical logistics requirements
to reach affected populations.
One of the things
that hon. Members can continue to do to help the relief
effort, as well as urging their constituents to continue to
consider whether they can give support to the appeal made by
the Disasters Emergency Committee, is to focus the attention
of the House and, we hope, the media on the continuing needs
of the people of Pakistan devastated by the earthquake. We
need to continue to try to do everything that we can to keep
international attention focused on the disaster.
We have pledged £5
million to the United Nations flash appeal, but we are doing
much more to support the UN. We have already provided about
£10 million of direct and in-kind assistance to the UN, and
we will provide further support in key sectors. Our support
to the UN ranges from health, shelter, water and sanitation
interventions, as well as supporting camp management, to
vehicles, logistics, co-ordination and, importantly,
helicopters.
Our military has
been providing crucial logistical assistance. The Ministry
of Defence, as the House will know, has provided three
Chinook helicopters and airlifted rations and water from
Kabul, using a C130 aircraft, as well as 40 tonnes of
vegetarian rations from Britain via NATO. The MOD has also
helped to airlift two Puma helicopters from Spain to
Pakistan in
support of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
About 120 medical evacuations have taken place on flights to
and from the affected areas. We have also contributed £2
million for the NATO air bridge to transport priority relief
items from UN warehouses.
We have provided
funding for a 75-man Royal Engineers light engineering unit
to go to Pakistan next week. Among other tasks, the
Government of Pakistan may ask the unit to repair bridges,
clear roads and begin the rebuilding of schools, clinics,
hospitals and other key critical facilities.
The hon. Member
for Kettering (Mr. Hollobone) rightly highlighted in his
intervention the need to continue to consider how we can
improve the ability of the international system to respond
to such crises. That has been one of the issues exercising
my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for
International Development and is one of the reasons why we
have argued during the past 12 months for the establishment
of a central emergency revolving fund to provide quicker
financial assistance to a variety of UN agencies. Instead of
having to go around with the begging bowl, they will then
have the assurance that, immediately when a disaster
strikes, they can get support on the ground where it is
needed.
Jim Cousins
(Newcastle upon Tyne, Central) (Lab):
I am grateful for the great clarity and commitment with
which my hon. Friend is speaking. However, will he not
overlook the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for
Tooting (Mr. Khan) about the importance of changing trading
relationships to enable the people of Pakistan and Kashmir
to work their own way out of the terrible crisis that faces
them?
Mr. Thomas:
My hon. Friend
is right to focus on trade. It is one of the issues that the
Government of Pakistan have asked us to consider. We are
looking at that and at a number of other things that we can
do to provide support to the Government of Pakistan. He will
recognise that the issues surrounding trade have to be
discussed with the European Commission, but we are
considering them and a number of other issues that I shall
come to shortly.
We are lobbying
other donors to increase their support. At the European
Union informal meeting of Development Ministers on 24
October, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for
International Development urged those present to respond
generously. This week, he has written to his counterparts in
all European Union countries to encourage them to do more to
support relief needs. In particular, we have stressed the
need for additional logistics support, especially to ensure
that sufficient helicopters, alternative shelters as well as
tents, field medical teams and support to water and
sanitation are available. We are following up that letter
with a series of telephone calls.
I come to the
longer-term needs, the issues of reconstruction referred to
by my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne,
Central (Jim Cousins), and what else we can do to provide
support. The House may be aware that the Earthquake
Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority, chaired by the
Prime Minister of Pakistan, has asked the World Bank and the
Asian Development Bank to lead a high-level needs assessment
team to prepare an outline plan and funding assessment for
long-term reconstruction needs. We expect that report to be
available by mid-November.
As my hon. Friend
the Member for Tooting suggested, a donor conference is
planned for 19 November in Islamabad to decide how the
international community should support the Government of
Pakistan in meeting the long-term reconstruction needs of
their people. I shall represent the United Kingdom
Government at that donor conference.
The emergency
relief phase of this humanitarian disaster will be unusually
long. The long, harsh Himalayan winter has the potential to
cause as much death and suffering as the earthquake itself.
It will not be until the snows begin to melt in the spring
that the full reconstruction phase can get under way.
Nevertheless, there is a lot that we can do in the meantime
to begin discussion around the planning of that
reconstruction effort. That is why the donor conference on
19 November is taking place and why the UK will be
represented.
It is at times
like these that countries can put aside their differences
and work together to ease the suffering of their peoples. I
was very pleased to hear of the agreement made on 30 October
between India and Pakistan to open the line of control in
both directions. On 7 November, families and relief items
were able to cross on foot at one of the five points on the
line of control. A further crossing point opened on 9
November. Although people require a permit to cross,
Pakistani and Indian officials have been instructed to issue
them quickly. I understand that the disturbances at the
Nauseri crossing point on 7 November were from Pakistani
Kashmiris who tried to cross without the correct permit.
India is providing a contribution of more than £14 million
to Pakistan for rebuilding, and I am sure that all Members
will join me in sincerely hoping that both Governments can
build on that co-operation and that a glimmer of hope can
come out of these tragic circumstances.
My hon. Friend
deserves praise for bringing our attention to this issue and
for giving us an opportunity to continue to consider the
needs of people in the affected communities. We in the
Department for International Development continue to focus
closely on what else we can do to provide support to the
affected communities in the relief phase given that many
people are vulnerable to the quickly approaching harsh
winter. We are continuing to look at the issue of long-term
reconstruction and the additional assistance that we can
provide.
Justine Greening
(Putney) (Con):
I congratulate the hon. Member for Tooting (Mr. Khan). Many
of my constituents have family and friends who have been
affected by this event. Will the Minister assure us that the
Government will press to ensure that the reconstruction plan
that is being worked up at the moment is adequate to meet
the long-term challenges?
Mr. Thomas:
One of the
reasons for going to the donor conference next week is to
consider exactly that issue and to see what further support
we can provide.
I again
congratulate my hon. Friend on bringing this issue to the
attention of the House.
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