The Lord Bishop of St Albans – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of St Albans on 2015-11-02.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking in co-operation with the UN and other allies to ensure that a long-term solution is found to protect the residents of Camp Liberty.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We strongly condemn the shameful attack against the civilian residents of Camp Liberty in Iraq on Thursday 29 October. Officials from our Embassy in Baghdad raised the attack with the Iraqi Prime Minister’s Office on Friday 30 October and made clear the importance of an urgent and comprehensive investigation into the incident and ensuring that all those responsible are brought to justice.
In all of our engagement with the Government of Iraq on this issue, including at Ministerial level and in our statements, we have emphasised the importance of the Iraqi government doing everything possible to ensure the safety of the residents of Camp Liberty. We support the UN’ calls for more to be done to protect the residents.
In 2011 the Government of Iraq signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the UN Assistance Mission to Iraq which allowed the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to make assessments on applications made by the residents for relocation. The UNHCR assessment process is underway, and a number of residents have now been relocated to third countries.