Committees

Committee statement to DFID's response on Forced displacement in Africa Report

26 June 2019

New data published on World Refugee Day last week revealed that 70.8 million people are now displaced from their homes (up from 68.5 million in 2017 and 43.3 million in 2009). The International Development Committee (IDC) is publishes the Government's reply to the Committee's report on Forced displacement in Africa: Anchors not Walls.

The IDC welcomes much of what the Department for International Development (DFID) has to say in agreeing, in whole or in part, with 31 out of 34 of its recommendations.
 
We were, however, disappointed – but unsurprised – to see the Home Office, and the Government collectively, reject recommendations on:

  1. Easing the restrictions on asylum seekers' rights to work in the UK
  2. Doubling the number of resettlement places in the UK to 10,000 refugees each year (one quarter from Sub-Saharan Africa)
  3. A coherent, cross-government, national UK strategy on displacement and migration

In addition, we remain convinced, despite DFID's arguments, that:

  1. With overall debt levels at a record high and middle-income, and many low-income, countries reaching critical debt levels, support for refugee-hosting countries hosing refugees should be in the form of grants not loans;
  2. With half of the world's refugee children unable to go to school, UK replenishment of the Education Cannot Wait fund should be large and announced early, alongside intensive advocacy to encourage other donors to follow suit, and
  3. With internally displaced persons (IDPs) accounting for 60% of global displacement and, in so many cases, at the bottom of their governments' agendas, DFID should be prioritising – and advocating for - greater support for these marginalised populations. We reject the notion that ‘not crossing a national boundary' should mean over 40 million people are left behind; receiving little or no support and protection from the international community. A renewed focus and increased international action on this agenda is urgently needed.

Finally, we await convincing evidence that the nature of the UK's current engagement on migration in either Libya or Sudan meets the “do no harm” test. We will continue to monitor this and hope to see the Foreign Affairs Committee raise it in the context of its current inquiry, Finding a diplomatic route: European responses to irregular migration.

Further information

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