§ Angus RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) what assessment his Department has made of the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Co-ordinators' comments on 10 May 2004 concerning the humanitarian situation in Colombia; and if he will make a statement; [173368]
(2) what (a) aid and (b) relief plans are in place for a possible humanitarian crisis in Colombia; what the predicted roll-out times are; and if he will make a statement. [173369]
Mr. Gareth ThomasDFID notes that the Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, indicated that the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), together with the Government of Colombia and Non-Governmental Organisations, intend to launch a new humanitarian plan of action next month focused on the internally displaced. DFID will consider it carefully and discuss the details with OCHA once it is launched.
DFID stands ready to provide appropriate humanitarian assistance in response to humanitarian crises wherever they occur and seeks to respond as quickly as possible against an assessment of priority needs. The extent and nature of any UK response is determined by the magnitude of need and as part of a coordinated international response.
The European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) has already committed €8 million of humanitarian assistance for 2004, of which the United Kingdom's share is some €1.44 million.
§ Angus RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many people his Department estimates to be(a) internally displaced in Colombia, (b) displaced from Colombia to Panama and (c) displaced from Colombia to Venezuela; how these figures have changed since 2000; and if he will make a statement. [173443]
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Mr. Gareth ThomasNo universally accepted figures of displaced Colombians exist. In his statement of 10 May 2004, the Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, stated that 2 million people had become displaced in Colombia in the past 15 years. According to CODHES, a Colombian NGO, about 3,090,000 people were internally displaced from 1984–2003, of which 1,247,000 were over the period 2000–03. The Colombian Government figures estimates a figure of 1,148,000 over the latter period.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that there are 2,430 Colombian 'persons of concern' in Panama and around 8,860 in Venezuela. However, these figures are generally considered to represent only a proportion of displaced people to these countries, particularly in Venezuela given the effect the Venezuelan Government's concern about the influx of displaced Colombians is having on Colombians' desire to register.