BNI English

Despite suffering from appalling poverty and malicious human rights violation, Burmese refugees and internally displaced persons received the least quantum of aid from the United Kingdom, the House of Commons International Development Committee said today in a new report.

 

The report launched today said the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) failed to provide adequate aid to crisis-ridden Burma, which suffers from immense poverty and pernicious human rights abuses. It urges the UK to quadruple aid to the Southeast Asian nation, which currently receives the lowest aid among the Least Developed Countries.

 

Rt Hon Malcolm Bruce MP, Chairman of the Committee, in a statement said, "UK aid to Burma is unacceptably low. Burma receives the lowest aid per head in the world for a poor country."

 

"Given the pernicious human rights abuses and dire poverty levels within Burma, this is a scandal. We believe that the UK should quadruple the aid it gives to Burma by 2013. This additional funding should go to both in-country and cross-border assistance," he added.

 

According to the Select Committee Media Officer, Alex Paterson, the report, which highlights the crisis of Burmese refugees and IDPs, was launched following the committee's representatives visit to the crisis-stricken areas along the Thai-Burma border in April.

 

The report said, the most shocking aspect of Burma's political and humanitarian crisis is the forced displacement of its own people. It said, there are at east half a million people displaced from their homes in eastern Burma alone due to widespread human rights violation. And one third of these people suffer from forced labour and rape, which is used as a weapon of war by the Burmese Amy.

 

Yet Burma receives the lowest aid per head of all the world's poorest countries, said the committee urging the DFID to quadruple its aid by 2013. The DFID is one of the only four donors based in Burma.

 

The report said other countries with poor human rights records receive substantially more aid from the UK. Zimbabwe, for example, receives four times as much as Burma, the report added.

 

For the year 2007-08, Burma received £8.8 million of aid from the UK .

The report said there is a desperate need for increased aid to help displaced people hiding in the jungles and conflict zones of Burma, with over 70 percent of the population at risk from malaria.

Burma has the third highest rate of HIV prevalence in South-East Asia and less than one-fifth of the displaced children in eastern Burma survive till their fifth birthday, the report added .

The committee said in order to ensure that the increased aid does not benefit Burma's military regime, it should be channeled through community groups in Burma and aid agencies working from the Thai border. It also urged the UK to work closely with the UN to ensure aid is accurately targeted.

"An urgent mapping exercise needs to be carried out, pinpointing which displaced people within Burma have the most pressing need for food, shelter and medical assistance. DFID should support the UN to do this urgently but thoroughly," Malcolm Bruce said.

The DFID is currently providing £1.8 million to the over 150,000 Burmese refugees residing in nine camps along the Thai-Burma border.

Malcolm Bruce, who was among the team of representative who visited the refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border in April said, the team was shocked by to learn that the DFID is not making regular visits to the camps to find out the situation and also it's failure to significantly engage the Thai government on refugee policy.

"We believe DFID needs to be a more visible presence at the border, to support NGOs based in Thailand and to fulfill a the role of co-ordination and that this requires them to have at least two full-time, senior staff based in Thailand," said Malcolm Bruce.