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Refugees:
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[LORD BAUER.] When life is extensively politicised people's economic and even physical survival may depend on political and administrative decisions. The stakes in the fight for political power, both gains and losses, are much increased. This inflames tension and conflict and sets up centrifugal forces, at least until all opposition is forcibly suppressed. These dangers are especially evident in multi-racial and multi-cultural societies where they bring about persecution, expulsions and even massacres.
The more far-reaching the controls, the worse the results. When private production and trade are suppressed and the most enterprising people persecuted, large sectors of the economy decline, dis- develop and even revert to subsistence conditions. Such sequences are often accompanied by neglect of the primary tasks of government, including even the maintenance of elementary public security, made more difficult by civil conflict and economic collapse. This grim cycle is evidence not only in Ethiopia and the Sahel, but in varying degrees also in much of Asia and Africa.
Politicisation of economic life is behind much of the third world refugees problem. The result is tragic, but also anomalous. The great majority of refugees in Asia and Africa have fled from governments which still receive United Kingdom aid or multi-lateral aid to which we contribute. Western aid has enabled many of these governments to survive and to pursue their destructive policies. The hundreds of thousands of refugees in Southern Sudan, who have been there since long before the recent famine, are all from countries which routinely receive Western aid, usually including United Kingdom aid. The Western donors now contribute substantially to new forms of UN assistance to refugees while, at the same time, they finance the governments which cause their plight.
What should we do? We should generously support non-politicised charities and other organisations trying to help refugees, including the Red Cross, various teaching and medical missions and the French-based Médecins sans Frontières, to which the noble Viscount, Lord Buckmaster, has already referred, which has expanded from small beginnings to being a significant support for refugees and others in the third world.
But this is only a minor palliative. At the same time we should drastically cut or eliminate aid to governments responsible for the plight of the refugees. At the very least we should impose stringent conditions and withdraw aid if the conditions are not met.
We cannot wash our hands of guilt if we continue to use taxpayers' money to underpin policies that cause such distress and then proffer further gifts to ameliorate its consequences marginally and temporarily.
4:39 p.m.
Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos: My Lords, we are extremely grateful to the noble Viscount, Lord Buckmaster, for giving us this opportunity to debate a tragic subject, and also for his opening speech. His personal experience of many of the countries afflicted
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with the problem enabled him to speak with authority and feeling. He and the other noble Lords who have spoken have brought home to us the scale and the awful tragedy of the refugee problem in the world today.
I should like to congratulate first the noble Viscount, Lord Brentford, whose father I remember, with respect, as a fellow Member in another place and, of course, as a Member of this House. We were delighted to hear the noble Viscount speak today. He said that he felt rather nervous. Lloyd George used to say that whenever he got up to make a speech he felt butterflies in his tummy, but when he was speaking he tried to demonstrate that they were not there. The noble Viscount, even if he was nervous, gave us no such impression. His delivery was excellent, his content was thoughtful and helpful, and we look forward to hearing him many times in the future.
I should like also to congratulate the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Winchester on his speech. I understand that it may well be his last speech in this House before he retires. I should like, on behalf of my noble friends on this side of the House, to pay a very warm tribute to the right reverend Prelate for his contribution to this House during the period he has represented his historic diocese, and to wish him a long and happy retirement. I should like also to thank him for his thoughtful and compassionate speech. He obviously knows the subject. He knows this area very well, and we benefited from what he said.
A number of noble Lords dealt with the question of definition: what is a refugee? The noble Lord, Lord Chitnis, paid attention to this. It is well to remember that the refugees who come under the protection of the United Nations High Commission are defined as:
"Persons who, owing to well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality or political opinions, are outside their country of origin and cannot, or owing to such fear do not wish to, avail themselves of the protection of that country”. We recognise of course that that is only one category of refugee, albeit an important one. Those who flee from the country in which they live to seek safety from some natural disaster, such as earthquakes, floods or persistent drought, are also refugees, and when their terrible plight was brought home to people in this country and the Western world it drew a remarkable response from individuals and organisations and, indeed, from governments.
This is also an age-old problem, as some noble Lords have reminded us, and this country has a long and honourable tradition of extending asylum, especially to political refugees. The Motion refers to the third world, but the noble Viscount, Lord Buckmaster, reminded us that the world refugee problem is wider. Indeed, it was centred here in Europe in the 1940s, when millions of people were uprooted by war and by changes in political alignments and national boundaries. Most of them have by now created new lives for themselves in a new environment, but there are still refugees in Europe. It is calculated that there are now in Europe about 567,000 refugees, of whom 146,000 reside in this country. Among the most recent arrivals have been refugees from Indo-China and Poland, and I believe that assistance to those needing help comes from local sources in this country. There are 849,000 refugees in
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