§ Mr. MackinlayTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his Department has done to alleviate the plight and suffering of refugees in Somalia over the past 12 months; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. BaldryIn the past 12 months more than £4.3 million has been given in general humanitarian assistance to Somalia. It is not possible to distinguish how much of this benefited refugees.
§ Mr. MackinlayTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what current assessment his Department has made of the scale of the refugee situation in Somalia; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. BaldryAccording to UNHCR there are only some 400 refugees from other countries in Somalia. This is much fewer than the number of internally displaced people in the country. No statistics are held for these.476W providing two chartered aircraft for use by UNHCR within the region; as well as helping with a number of other British NGOs who are mobilising resources and organising their own airlifts.
The EU Foreign Affairs Council agreed on 18 July to allocate £120 million from existing Lomé funds to finance humanitarian assistance in Rwanda: this is subject to the agreement of the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. This is in addition to over £100 million of emergency aid provided for Rwandan refugees since last year, including the cost of 40,000 tons of food aid now in transit through Uganda.
The Government continue to monitor the situation extremely closely. My right hon. Friend the Minister for Overseas Development will be visiting the region next week.