Bangladesh: Bihari Refugees (Hansard, 10 November 1997)

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, there have been no such discussions between British Ministers and Ministers from Pakistan or Bangladesh. But Her Majesty's Government have provided assistance to the Bihari community, including a contribution of £600,000 joint funding scheme grant to the international NGO concern for primary education and £160,000 to support maternal and child health, family planning, nutrition and STD prevention services for Biharis in Dhaka.

§ Lord McNally
My Lords, as the Minister is aware, we are about to have a long, broad-brush debate on overseas aid policy. Does she agree that part of an effective aid policy looks also at smaller problems that are curable? Surely the Bihari case comes into that category: 250,000 people who have been in refugee camps for a quarter of a century, where proper leadership could get some back to Pakistan and some assimilated into the Bangladeshi community. The fact that the Secretary of State for International Development went to Bangladesh and did not visit the Bihari camps was an opportunity missed; the fact that she did not raise this issue with Bangladeshi Ministers when she was there was a missed opportunity; the fact that the Prime Minister, when he had the prime ministers of Pakistan and Bangladesh at the Commonwealth conference, did not raise the issue was again a missed opportunity. Surely aid policy should deal with real problems as well as high-minded documents.

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, the noble Lord touched upon two issues. One is a political issue. It is a difficult issue relating to the Biharis, who are originally from India rather than Pakistan. They moved to East Pakistan on the partition of India in 1947. They expressed a wish to remain in the state of Pakistan when Bangladesh separated from West Pakistan, perhaps because they are mainly Urdu speakers. There is also, as the noble Lord said, the aid question. I believe that my right honourable friend has already written to him about her trip to Bangladesh. There was considerable pressure on her time, and it was her first visit to Bangladesh. She was anxious to see development activities outside Dhaka as well as to meet as many people as possible concerned with development issues. The Secretary of State for International Development is happy for DfID's office in Dhaka to consider projects which will help reduce poverty among the Biharis as well as the people of Bangladesh more generally. I hope that that goes some way towards reassuring the noble Lord.

§ Lord Moynihan
My Lords, does the Minister accept that the policies of my noble friend Lady Chalker of Wallasey with regard to poverty reduction and human resource development contributed greatly to the warm relations that exist between the UK and Bangladesh? How did the Secretary of State for International Development successfully build on those relations 8 during her visit to Bangladesh in September? What new initiatives beneficial to the Biharis will result from that visit?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, I am sure that noble Lords will recall that when we last discussed this issue I was fulsome in my praise of the efforts of the noble Baroness, Lady Chalker, in that part of the world. I have no hesitation in being so again on this occasion. I have already made it clear that my right honourable friend has said that she will take suggestions from NGOs from noble Lords and from wherever else they may come, about ways in which poverty in Bangladesh can continue to be alleviated. It is worth noting that Bangladesh is the recipient of £45 million of aid each year, which makes it the second largest recipient of UK aid.

§ Lord Avebury
My Lords, does the Minister recall that the late Lord Ennals spent a great deal of time in trying to secure agreement on this issue between Pakistan and Bangladesh? At one point, he received an offer of £25 million from the Saudi Arabians to resettle some or all of the Bihari community in Pakistan. Does the Minister know whether that offer remains extant and the extent to which the problem between Bangladesh and Pakistan is one of money, which might be helped if the Islamic world made a bigger contribution than was offered by Saudi Arabia?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, I do indeed recall the efforts of Lord Ennals. The noble Lord, Lord Avebury, was kind enough to draw them to my attention when we last discussed the issue in your Lordships' House. I do not know whether the money from Saudi Arabia is still on the table in the way he suggested. I hope that I may be able to write to him with further information on that point. We must accept that the movement of the Bihari people is a matter primarily for the governments of Pakistan and Bangladesh to resolve.