The UK should press the United Nations to take a tougher stance with the Syrian government over the delivery of aid to besieged towns, a Labour MP has said.
Jo Cox, MP for Batley and Spen, said the government should assert that UN aid agencies need only notify the Syrian government of aid delivery plans, rather than seek its permission.
The issue of access to aid is likely to come up at a conference in London on 4 February convened by David Cameron and Angela Merkel and designed to raise about $7bn (£5bn) for refugees. It is hoped that the conference will also set out a long-term plan to provide schooling for refugee children and some jobs. More than four million refugees are in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan, and many more millions inside Syria are in need of aid. Last week more than 100 Syrian humanitarian workers published an open letter claiming the UN had been so submissive towards Damascus, or fearful of losing its workers’ visas, that it had forfeited its impartiality.
“Those whose loved ones die from malnutrition-related illnesses or a lack of basic medical care will never forgive the UN staff who sit minutes away in luxury hotels, within earshot of the bombing,” the aid workers wrote.
In a letter to Justine Greening, the UK’s international development secretary, Cox pointed out that previous UN security council resolutions stated that aid should be delivered through the most direct routes “with notification to the Syrian authorities”.
Cox asked: “Whilse, of course, safety assessments and access negotiation should be carried out, do you agree that it would be sufficient for UN agencies to notify the Syrian authorities of deliveries rather than seek official permission, as is currently being requested from the Syrian ministry of foreign affairs for every aid delivery?”
No comments:
Post a Comment