Following news in the last week that violence has once more broken out in Rakhine State in Burma, Shadow Minister for International Development Rushanara Ali MP said “Just last week violence broke out again in Rakhine State in Burma following weeks of violence in June that saw at least 100,000 people displaced. Unlike last time however, the Burmese Government has asked for help and the British Government must step up to answer that need.

On her return from a visit to East Africa to see the projects the organisation have been carrying out in the region since the start of its operations in Kenya in 1993, at the launch of a new report from Islamic Relief on disaster risk reduction in the developing world, Shadow International Development Minister and Bethnal Green and Bow MP, Rushanara Ali said: “I am grateful to Islamic Relief for giving me the unique opportunity to witness firsthand the work that is being done in places like East Africa to tackle the effects of climate change.  The famine last year in East Africa, caused by one of the worst droughts in at least 25 years, saw 13 million people left in need of food, water and emergency healthcare.  Hundreds of thousands fled Somalia due to the drought and conflict.

Rushanara Ali MP, Shadow Minister for International Development, has spoken in a Westminster Hall debate to call for an end to the violence and discrimination against the Rohingya community in Burma.