Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-01-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking on behalf of enslaved Yazidi women who have been sold on to other Islamic countries; what assessment they have made of the countries to which such women have been transported; and what plans they have to help recover those women from those countries, in particular Turkey.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

In the last few years, the UK has led the world on tackling sexual violence in conflict, working with international partners such as the UN, EU and Red Cross. In the Middle East, we are supporting vulnerable women and girls through our role in the international humanitarian relief effort. The more than £1.1 billion we are providing in response to these crises is the UK’s largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis.

Turkey makes a critical contribution to the international campaign against Daesh as a key member of the Global Coalition, including by co-chairing the Coalition’s Foreign Terrorist Fighters working group. It continues to take steps to tackle smuggling into and out of Daesh-controlled territory across its border with Syria.

Ultimately, the only way to protect civilians, including Yazidi women, from Daesh is by defeating this terrible organisation, which in turn requires, amongst other things, ending the conflict in Syria. The UK has been at the forefront of these efforts. The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), set out the Government’s comprehensive strategy for dealing with Daesh and the conflict in Syria in his response to the Foreign Affairs Committee on 26 November 2015.