Hostage Recovery (Hansard, 13 March 1996)

§ Mr. Neil Gerrard (Walthamstow)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to place a duty on the Secretary of State to ensure that appropriate assistance is provided to people returning to the United Kingdom, having been held against their will as hostages, and to their families; and for connected purposes. The purpose of my Bill is simple and straightforward: to put a duty on the Government to ensure that people who have been held as hostages abroad get support, assistance and advice from the Government when they are released. The public think that few people have been held as hostages and remember that when Terry Waite and John McCarthy—two well-known cases—returned, they were taken to RAF Lyneham and given assistance. People assume that that is the natural course of events and that it occurs in every case.

The reality is rather different. In recent years, a significant number of people have been held hostage. More than 1,200 people were held in the Gulf during the Gulf war and smaller numbers have been held in several other places since, including the two men who are being held in Kashmir. Although we may like to think that hostage taking will cease, I suspect that it will not. It has gone on for the whole of recorded history and will happen again somewhere, at some time. None us can predict where or how many people will be involved.

It is obvious that what happens to people when they are held is deeply traumatic and stressful. I do not want to speculate on cases with which I have not been personally involved, but I am sure that it is safe to say that Keith Mangan and Paul Wells, who are being held in Kashmir, will have been through some dreadful experiences and will need support and help when they are released, which I hope will be soon. In many cases, people who have been released have not had the help that they should have had.

I became involved in the issue through the case of my constituent Paul Ride. He was taken over the border between Kuwait and Iraq by an Iraqi patrol and given a seven-year sentence, supposedly for illegally entering Iraq. At the same time, a constituent of my hon. Friend the Member for Halifax (Mrs. Mahon) was held, together with several other people of various nationalities.

I think that people will be shocked to learn what happened to those men when they were released. Paul Ride was given a taxi home from Heathrow airport and that was the end of direct assistance to him. Nothing else was done to help him. Over the next year or two, he suffered family breakdown and psychiatric problems that led to him attempting suicide by setting fire to his house. The Crown Prosecution Service responded by charging him with arson. It was only after a year of waiting for the case to come to trial that it was dropped and he got the help that he needed.

Finally, I got in touch with Terry Waite, who was able, in turn, to put us in touch with Dr. Gordon Turnbull, who had done the work for the Government when Terry Waite and John McCarthy were released.

That case is not unique. Anyone who is in touch with the Gulf war human shield victims will know that many continue to suffer serious problems four or five years later. The Government are well aware of that fact. They funded research conducted by Dr. Stuart Turner which 986 concluded that psychiatric problems should be resolved. He found that social and financial problems might lead to psychological problems and, finally—and most importantly in the context of my Bill—he proposed co-ordinated planning in advance in order to deal with possible psychological and social problems.

When the money was provided to Dr. Turner's clinic, the Prime Minister commented in a Department of Health press release about the effect of disasters and traumatic stress on people and the severe and long-lasting problems that could result. His sentiments were echoed by the then Under-Secretary of State for Health, the present Secretary of State for Health. I do not think that anyone doubts that action is necessary. The problem is that it does not occur: people fall through the gaps between the various agencies that might be expected to provide assistance.

My Bill sets out to rectify the problem. Obviously, I accept that there are some difficulties in defining exactly who might be regarded as a "hostage". In some cases, it is very clear that people have been held illegally. In the cases of Paul Ride and Michael Wainwright, the Government helped to arrange for family members to meet the United Nations Secretary-General and ensured that they did not face legal costs in Iraq. Such action is not taken when someone has been charged with a genuine criminal offence.

I accept that we must help all people who have been incarcerated in foreign prisons, but I think that those who have been held hostage have special needs. Those needs may vary from case to case—whether it is psychiatric counselling or direct practical assistance such as temporary housing, social services assistance and so on. Someone must be responsible for ensuring that that assistance is co-ordinated and that people know where it may be obtained. We are talking about people who have been through deeply traumatising and stressful experiences: they are not in the best position to make decisions about how to help themselves or to know where they might receive assistance.

I do not ask the Government to spend vast amounts of money or to set up permanent quangos or bureaucracies that might do little for long periods. The Government established a special unit in the Foreign Office during the Gulf war, but it was concerned simply with helping to achieve the release of those who were being held as part of the human shield. No organised assistance was provided to follow up those activities. The Government also funded Dr. Stuart Turner's clinic, thereby acknowledging that a need exists.

In the past year or 18 months I have talked to those who have been held as hostages, to doctors who have been involved in treating returned hostages and to members of the Gulf support group. I have received direct support in my endeavours from both Terry Waite and John McCarthy, who believe that we must ensure that other people receive the same assistance as they did.

I simply ask the Government to accept their responsibility—their duty—to British citizens who have suffered for political reasons, who have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. That aim could be achieved without legislation, but legislation would mean that the duty exists and that something will be done.