THE SNP’s Westminster leader has warned the UK Government “risks free-falling from the international stage” unless it meets its responsibilities over the Rohingya refugee crisis.
Ian Blackford echoed the conclusions of the Foreign Affairs Committee, which said the UK Government’s failure to carry out its own analysis of the conflict was “not befitting” of its leading international role, and that it should “immediately investigate and conduct its own assessment of the situation”.
The report said it should be made clear to both Myanmar and Bangladesh that the UK will not support a suggested repatriation deal which does not include “comprehensive safeguards and does not have the confidence of relevant UN agencies”.
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Earlier in the year, the SNP pressured the Tory government to end its military ties to the regime in Myanmar. The Ministry of Defence has spent more than £500,000 funding an educational training programme for the country’s military since 2014.
Blackford said: “The UK Government’s response to the Rohingya crisis has so far been a shameful dereliction of duty, and risks the UK free-falling from the international stage.
“The UK Government cannot – and must not – abandon its responsibility in upholding international law and in ensuring that those in positions of power in the Burmese regime are held to account over what the UN has described as ‘textbook ethnic cleansing’.
“The UK Government must heed the report’s conclusions, which include reinvigorated diplomatic efforts, but also scrutiny of the possible repatriation deal of Rohingya refugees.”
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