That this House has considered support for Türkiye and Syria after the recent earthquake.
Many of us in this place know that the UK has a strong Turkish diaspora, based primarily, though not exclusively, in London. The UK has also welcomed 20,000 Syrian refugees into our country through the resettlement programme. In introducing the debate, I am conscious that there is not just great interest but real concern in our Parliament. That is evident from the number of colleagues present in Westminster Hall late on a Thursday afternoon. I thank everybody for being here.
The purpose of the debate is to highlight the situation following the recent terrible earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. In the early hours of Monday 6 February 2023, a major earthquake struck south-eastern Turkey and north-western Syria. The epicentre of the initial earthquake was near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, and it measured a staggering 7.8 on the Richter scale. It is reported to be the biggest earthquake to hit Turkey since the Marmara earthquake in 1999. Ten provinces in the south and south-east of Turkey were heavily impacted, as was northern Syria.
A second earthquake struck the same region nine hours later, measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale, and many aftershocks were also recorded. The impact of the earthquakes was felt hundreds of miles away, with shaking felt in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, and tremors in Cyprus, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan. Just this week, a further earthquake measuring 6.4 hit the region. Although the scale and extent of the damage is still being assessed, it is clear that Turkey and Syria have been left reeling from the worst earthquake in 80 years.
Current reports estimate over 46,000 deaths and over 100,000 people injured. There has been extensive structural damage in Turkey, with reports of more than 40,000 buildings collapsing, including three major hospitals in Hatay. Not only have buildings collapsed, but infrastructure has been severely damaged. It is estimated that 300,000 people across the region have been left homeless. As we have seen in recent weeks, many have been trapped under building rubble.
I thank the right hon. Lady for securing this important debate. She is right to say that so many people have turned out on a Thursday because this is important to us.
My constituent, Kholoud, came to the UK as a refugee after campaigning against the president of Syria, and her family was granted temporary protection in Turkey. Her family is one of the many that have been displaced. To make matters worse, they have been refused the help they need and treated with hostility by the Turkish authorities. My constituent is very worried. She says that anti-Syrian racism has been widespread in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake, and there are rumours that the rescue teams are prioritising the rescue of Turkish nationals. Will the right hon. Lady ask the Minister to provide some reassurance to my constituent that the UK is open to supporting everyone who has been affected by the tragic earthquakes, including Syrians?
The hon. Lady makes a really important point. A natural disaster recognises no boundaries and no borders; it just affects people—citizens. I am sure the Minister will respond to that point.
Few people would not be moved by the images we have seen and the stories we have heard—images of immense bravery, not just of the survivors and their families but of the rescuers who have gone in in the aftermath of the earthquakes. Of course, on top of that there is the added challenge of the weather and the freezing temperatures.
Before I talk about the UK’s aid and the international response, it is important to reflect on the fact that Turkey hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees displaced abroad due to the country’s civil war. In some of the affected areas, 50% of the population are refugees. I recall visiting some of those camps and communities back in 2014 as part of a Conservative social action project before I entered this place, and even at that point the numbers were high and it seemed that it would potentially be a long-term situation.
There are 47,000 dead—my constituency has 44,000 people in it. That gives a sense of what we are facing in human terms. On the subject of refugees, many of those who have been displaced will of course want to stay and rebuild, but they may want to send some of their family to join family here. Would this not be a great opportunity to give a lead in the world and set up a scheme for those who have connections here in the same way that we did for those fleeing war in Ukraine?
The right hon. Gentleman puts the numbers into context. It is one thing to talk about a number, but to relate it to the size of a constituency or a community absolutely resonates. I am sure the Minister will say a little more about the refugee situation.
When I was in Turkey, I visited Gaziantep—a beautiful part of the country—and the region close to the border, and I recall just how struck I was by the size of the refugee crisis. For Syria, this is yet another devastating crisis after 12 years of conflict. Syria is divided into hostile areas, with the Assad regime controlling most of the country. The northern regions are controlled by a variety of armed opposition groups. There is now the impact of devastating earthquakes to deal with, too.
In Syria’s Aleppo, Idlib, Latakia and Hama governorates, there are reports of collapsed buildings. Major infrastructure damage has been reported too, and also in Damascus. The British Red Cross estimates that 4.1 million people in the north-west of Syria already rely on humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs. The scale and severity of the humanitarian situation is complex and severe.
In Turkey, the Government declared a state of emergency and requested international assistance. The country has an impressive disaster relief operation known as AFAD—the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency—which I was fortunate to visit in my time as Minister for the European Neighbourhood, but even that has been severely tested by the scale of the disaster.
The week of the earthquakes, I visited the Nurture Society in Cambuslang in my constituency to lend my support to the phenomenal amount of work it quickly undertook to support the Turkish community locally and across the central belt, and to get vital supplies sent to those on the ground. Does the right hon. Lady share my gratitude to local community groups that mobilised so swiftly? Does she agree that they are the pride of our constituencies?
I absolutely agree with the hon. Lady. I will touch on the tremendous support from local communities shortly. I am really pleased that in the immediate aftermath the UK Government—the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and many others—took swift action and stepped up to deliver aid and humanitarian support. I want to take a moment to mention some of this work.
A Disasters Emergency Committee—DEC—appeal was launched and raised almost £53 million in its first two days. I was pleased to see the FCDO, which I know is a long-standing member, pledge to match the first £5 million raised. As at 20 February, which is when I last checked, the appeal had raised more than £93 million for both Turkey and Syria. Fifteen charities are involved in that vital fundraising and response effort.
UK ISAR, the UK international search and rescue team, funded by the FCDO, sent a 77-strong team of specialists—I was really pleased to note that that included eight West Midlands Fire Service personnel—along with four specialist search and rescue dogs, to assist with search and rescue. Many of us saw the scenes on our TVs of people being rescued from the rubble days after the earthquake had struck. I pay tribute, as I am sure all Members would, to all the search and rescue personnel and, of course, to the amazing rescue dogs, who have a vital part to play.
The UK has sent out thousands of lifesaving items, including tents and blankets, and announced an aid package. I welcome the UK’s sending out a joint Ministry of Defence and FCDO field hospital, which includes an emergency department and a 24/7 operating theatre to provide emergency treatment to the critically injured. The Government have committed additional funding to the White Helmets to support earthquake search and rescue efforts in north-west Syria, where the situation is extremely complex. And of course there are organisations and charities such as the British Red Cross, ActionAid and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to name just a few of the many that do incredible work in these challenging and often dangerous humanitarian situations.
US trade sanctions in Syria have led to accusations that they have prevented humanitarian aid from reaching victims of the disaster, which could reasonably be an unintentional consequence, despite exemptions on aid goods. Does the right hon. Member share my concerns about the Syrian Government’s attempt to use the situation to have sanctions lifted?
In any situation, I would always be concerned about the possibility of any regime using humanitarian aid as a weapon of conflict, so I urge those involved in the effort to do all they can to keep the crossing points open and the flow of aid going through to the people who need that help the most.
Finally, I want to return briefly to reconstruction. I am aware that there has been criticism of construction methods used in Turkey and the fact that many buildings may have failed to meet the correct standards. What can the international community do to keep the pressure on and ensure that reconstruction projects are built to the best standards possible, certainly where UK aid and UK companies are involved? That becomes ever more pressing as we move from the rescue to the recovery phase of the disaster.
In common with other Members, I have visited Turkey on a number of occasions, including both Gaziantep and Hatay. I have seen the beautiful mosaics in the museums. I have spoken with many people. I have visited refugee camps on the banks of the Euphrates and I have stood right on the border between Turkey and Syria, watching the aid trucks cross. Turkey has shown great solidarity by opening its country and its homes to many thousands of displaced people. I hope that today’s debate reinforces not just the UK’s role in international development but our solidarity with all those affected by the devastating earthquakes.
Order. Many Members want to participate in the debate. In order to try to get everybody in, I propose an informal time limit of five minutes on Back-Bench contributions. If Members do not keep to that informal limit, I will have no choice but to impose a shorter, formal one in due course.
I thank the right hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton) for securing this very important debate on support for the people of Türkiye and Syria following the devasting earthquakes. I join her in sending condolences to all those who have lost loved ones and in paying tribute to all the organisations and individuals who are working so hard to deliver aid and medical assistance on the ground. We will need a long-term commitment to the region.
The tragic events in Türkiye and Syria have been keenly felt in Newport East, where we have well-established Turkish and Kurdish-Turkish communities. The Kurdish-Turkish community in Newport has grown considerably in recent years, as a result of political discord and divisions in Türkiye, a divide that has again been brought into focus over recent weeks. In Newport, the majority of families in that community originate from provinces that have been among the most severely impacted by the earthquake, including Hatay, where some 21,000 deaths have been recorded, and the surrounding areas of Kahramanmaraş, Gaziantep and Adıyaman, which are each districts with recorded death tolls of over 3,500.
We know that the official Government death toll across southern and central Türkiye and northern Syria is a staggering 49,000, and is likely to rise, not least as there are still scores of destroyed buildings where search and rescue missions have not yet taken place. That is particularly true for the towns and villages in mountainous regions that rescue crews have been unable to access following the devastation of road and airport infrastructure. It would be good to hear from the Minister today what steps the international community is taking to ensure that emergency support reaches survivors in those less accessible areas; my constituents have asked me to raise that question, as the scale is huge.
We are keenly aware that the world does not yet have a full picture of the devastation wrought in Syria. Residents in Newport who have family members stranded in Idlib, an area that is still recovering from the barbarism wrought by Daesh and cluster bombs from Russian and Assad-backed Government forces, are particularly concerned that the region should not be forgotten. Even before the earthquake, an estimated 4.1 million people in north-west Syria relied on aid to meet their basic needs, and we think that 5.3 million survivors in Syria are now dependent on humanitarian assistance.
First, I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton) on securing this important debate. Few events can have the capacity to shake us to our core more than an earthquake. We are all moved by individual stories of victims of these natural disasters. In the news last week, I heard of a man whose home was one of the thousands of buildings in north-west Syria that were completely destroyed by the 6 February earthquakes. At least a hundred people in the building died. He recalled the shaking and the smell of dust, as his children fled from the second floor. Another building crumbled down in front of their eyes as they stepped outside.
Two weeks after the earthquakes, he now lives in a tent with his wife and seven children in the garden of a non-governmental organisation. He used to work in an olive refinery, but he is now unemployed, and since the earthquakes his family gets by with food support provided by charities.
With the rise of natural disasters often triggered by the impact of climate change, the challenges our world faces are becoming more complex. At the same time, ever-growing regions are subject to political unrest and instability. In this context, the solidarity shown in response to Syria and Turkey’s emergency has been inspiring.
I take this opportunity to thank every Government organisation and individual who has offered immediate assistance in the form of much-needed critical resources, such as winter clothing, health and nutrition supplies, electric heaters and hygiene kits, as well as the specialist rescue units that are helping extract people from under the rubble. I am proud that as a country we have been able to pledge more than £30 million in assistance, including the deployment of search and rescue teams and an additional £3.8 million in funding for the Syrian White Helmets.
I am aware of the critical humanitarian situation in north Syria over many years. This natural disaster has exacerbated the high level of humanitarian need, with many Syrian refugees concentrated in the 10 affected provinces of southern Turkey, and Syria suffering from more than a decade of civil war.
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Before I move on to talk a little more about some of the challenges and to seek some reassurances from my hon. Friend the Minister, I want to recognise also the contribution of businesses, our local communities and individuals in the UK, who are playing their part in this effort. I want to mention in particular, from my own constituency, my fellow Rotarians in Aldridge, who held a collection in the village—I think it was in Morrisons —last weekend. Their response was very warmly received by the local community. Also, Tynings Lane Church in Aldridge recently collected blankets and warm clothes to send over with a family who were travelling to the region.
I am sure that the Minister will want to update us on the latest situation regarding the UK response to the Turkey-Syria situation and I look forward to that, especially because, following the visit to the region earlier in the week by the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, our right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell), he will have more up-to-date information. I would also like to gently ask him how he balances this latest humanitarian situation among all the many other, equally important pressures on his budget. I can remember from my time in the FCDO that that is always quite a challenge, so I just wanted to raise it with him.
Let me turn briefly to the situation in Syria. Even before the earthquake struck, there was only one remaining UN-mandated border crossing, at Bab al-Hawa. When I visited in 2021, I saw at first hand the huge volume of trucks and aid that was passing through, and even then it simply was not enough to match the needs of north-west Syria. I am pleased that the UK is working very closely with the UN, international partners and non-governmental- organisation partners to look at mobilising support. I welcome the UN-brokered agreement of 13 February to open additional crossings, but I believe that they are only temporary—for three months—so I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will reassure me and others that he will do all he can to keep those crossing points open.
Of course, the difficulty of humanitarian access to north-west Syria is not new; it is the result of the ongoing conflict and the Assad regime’s use of aid as a political weapon. The Turkey-Syria earthquake has acted to highlight the challenge once again. What more can the UK and the international community can do, working with the UN and NGOs, to help humanitarian assistance to reach those who need it?
I understand that there are now three aid routes open in Syria, and 143 convoys have been able to cross the border, but Save the Children highlights that those routes will be open only during a three-month window, and that most of the aid packages crossing the border have only a 12-week lifespan. A long-term strategy for aid and support is much needed, and any update on that would be much appreciated.
Since the earthquake struck on 6 February, I have been in touch with 250 constituents who have lost family or loved ones, and I have taken part in two community meetings in Newport over the last fortnight, which included heartbreaking and really harrowing accounts from those directly and indirectly affected. Last week, I spoke with two survivors who told me that they had just managed to escape their home before the building collapsed, but they were unable to save their neighbours. They could hear their cries from under the rubble. The cruel feeling they described of survivor guilt will never leave them, nor will the horrific memories of what they heard and felt that day.
I met another constituent who lost 10 loved ones in a single building collapse, and another gentleman who had lost 20 relatives. There are many people worrying for their vulnerable young orphans and frail and elderly relatives who are now living under those crude tarpaulin tents. As one constituent put it to me:
“If they don't die of the disaster, they will die of the cold. The water is dirty. They’re hungry.”
Another said:
“More people will die of infection and the cold than the earthquake - we just don't have time.”
Sky News followed one of my constituents, Ahmet, who travelled to some of the most challenging areas in the region to try to find his only surviving relative, a 15-year-old niece. He is now stranded, and cannot return home to Wales as there is no one alive to care for her.
A big ask from the community in Newport is for a temporary visa system to be put in place, akin to the support offered by other European countries, such as Germany and the Swiss and Dutch Governments, to allow those most vulnerable individuals who have been left stranded to reunite with family members here in the UK. I understand that might not be the Government’s position at the moment, but I would be really grateful to hear details from the Minister about what options might be available and what discussions he has had with the Home Office on the handling of new visa applications and speeding up existing visa applications. We are aware that many people, particularly the 15-year-old I mentioned, will have lost all documentation, so that is important too. What is the strategy for orphaned children without passports or documentation?
I echo the point made by the right hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills about rebuilding in a safer way for the future. I reiterate the asks made by Save the Children—namely, for the UK Government to play their part in a sustained campaign of international support to prevent further loss of life, including in the secondary crisis of hunger and disease, and to ensure that the protection of children is at the centre of our action.
I will finish on a more optimistic note. I thank the 16 schools in Newport East that have joined forces to donate to an appeal organised by Maindee Primary School, a school with a massively big heart. The supplies were sent away last week, so a big thank you to all those who donated, including Birchwood Housing CIC. I know there have been many appeals in Newport at the rugby and in our local churches for people to donate to the DEC appeal. In dark times, we tend to see the spirit of human kindness shine through brightly, and I know that is true for both my constituents and people across the country. I know Wales and the UK stand with the people of Türkiye and Syria.
Before the earthquakes, the region had a high level of humanitarian need and displacement, and the UN said that its funding for the area was already overstretched. While the earthquake was felt as far away as Lebanon, closer to home, northern Syria’s Aleppo and surrounding areas also reportedly saw thousands of buildings collapse, including two hospitals. The UN estimates that in north-west Syria, 120 schools have been destroyed and 57 hospitals have been partially damaged or forced to suspend their services.
Getting assistance to some 4.6 million Syrians living in the north-west has been slower than in the Government-controlled areas. It took nearly five days for the first UN aid to arrive, due to the restricted access. I am glad that the UK has been able to take steps to make it easier for the aid agencies to operate without breaching any sanctions that target the Assad regime.
Political unrest and instability clearly create challenges to countries wanting to offer aid. While aid agencies are working to help millions, there is concern that needs arising from other crises such as the war in Ukraine and Syria’s protracted civil war could affect that assistance over time. I would also like to highlight the fact that, as snow and rain have hampered the work of rescue teams, we also need to consider the safety and security of people offering the aid.
To deal with the aftermath of this crisis, we have years of work ahead. What support are we offering to ensure the rebuilding of housing so that populations are not displaced? As the situation on the ground moves to a new phase, from rescue to recovery, it is important that the UK considers the focus of our international aid budget in offering support that will last, by rebuilding people’s homes. This is a shared responsibility across the international community, but Britain will take a lead. I know that if we fail in this task we will pick up the cost of displacement in other ways.
It is important that the UK takes a role of leadership in international humanitarian support. We have a long and proud history of being at the heart of responses to disaster and conflict. The war in Ukraine has shown our allies how Britain can take the lead. In his recent speech, given next door in Westminster Hall, President Zelensky said:
“London has stood with Kyiv since day one, from the first seconds and minutes of the full-scale war. Great Britain, you extended your helping hand when the world had not yet come to understand how to react.”
We need to continue to work with the United Nations and other partner organisations in Turkey and northern Syria to co-ordinate the emergency response, with a particular focus on areas where access is difficult.