Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-09-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that its humanitarian response in Mosul does not involve screening procedures for children which separate them from their families.

Rory Stewart

The screening of fighting-age men fleeing from Daesh-controlled areas is conducted by the Government of Iraq as a security measure.

The UK and other major donors to the UN response in Iraq continue to vigorously lobby the Government of Iraq and other authorities to respect International Humanitarian Law during screening operations. We lobby for screening to take place in a transparent manner, under a fully accountable chain of command, and to be monitored independently by the UN and other neutral and impartial humanitarian actors.

On 21 September, the UK announced an extra £40 million of humanitarian funding to Iraq, taking our total commitment to £169.5 million since June 2014. This new support will be targeted specifically to enable a scale up of humanitarian assistance ahead of Mosul operations. An element of this support will aim to help protect civilians displaced as a result of the operations – including children.