Rushanara Ali

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After the Spring Budget announcement on 11 March, Rushanara Ali MP made the following statement:  Continue reading

Rushanara Ali MP commemorates International Mother Language Day.  Continue reading

On Thursday 23 January, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nation’s highest court, ordered the Myanmar government to prevent genocidal violence against its Rohingya Muslim minority, and preserve all evidence of past genocidal acts.  The case, filed by The Gambia, saw the 17 judges unanimously rule that Aung San Suu Kyi and the Myanmar government must respect the requirements of the United Nation’s 1948 genocide convention.    Continue reading

Rushanara Ali MP and Anne Main MP have today called on the Government of Bangladesh to rethink proposals for the relocation of Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char Island. The two MP’s jointly chair the cross-party parliamentary group on the rights of the Rohingya. In August 2017, over 700,000 Rohingya were forced to relocate to refugee camps near Cox’s Bazar in southern Bangladesh, after fleeing a brutal crackdown by the Myanmar military, which UN investigators declared was conducted with “genocidal intent”. Currently there are over 1 million people based in the over-crowded makeshift camps, who continue to live with extremely limited access to food, healthcare and shelter. The Bangladesh Government has considered the relocation of some Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char island as a solution to this humanitarian crisis. They hope this will ease overcrowding too. Previously, they had been unable to convince any refugees to go to the island. The plans have been publicly criticised by a number of humanitarian organisations who have expressed their concern as the silt island is susceptible to cyclones and flooding and is only accessible by boat. The UN has so far been denied the opportunity to conduct a technical and protection assessment of the island. On 20 October, the Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, Mohammad Abul Kalam, declared that Bangladesh will start the relocation process at the beginning of November 2019. This follows reports that Government officials have started compiling the lists of refugees who are willing to move, and that several thousand have already confirmed their acceptance. Continue reading