At this mornings Westminster Hall discussion at the House Commons on #Rohingya humanitarian crisis & effect of COVID19 pandemic we got the latest update on the efforts of the British government.

Interestingly Jeremy Corbyn MP also raised why 140,000 gowns were obtained from Myanmar when it stands accused of ethnic cleansing the Rohingyas by the UN. Should we really be trading with them at all? Now it is good to hear that since we have had the crisis of the Rohinyas refugees in Bangladesh for the past 3 years, the UK has been a major donor of funds to support them in their plight in the camps ( $300 million ), from the FCDO Minister Nigel Adams MP. But what on earth were we doing getting 140,000 PPE gowns from Myanmar in April during the first lockdown, from a regime the UN suspects of ethnic cleansing? It makes you wonder if anything more had been supplied from Myanmar since 20th of April when the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak MP announced at a COVID Conference that the UK had received these garments.

Furthermore, such PPE supplies could easily have been supplied from Dhaka’s garment industry who have yet to recover from the withdrawal of British companies from their contract commitments at the beginning of the lockdown. It would be useful for the UK government to be seen at least compensating the garment industry of Bangladesh for the behaviour of the British firms. 

So l look forward to seeing the response from the Minister on this matter, as he agreed he would respond to this question. As rather than adding Aung Sang Sue Kyi to the sanctions list against Myanmar officials involved in the ethnic cleansing, we need to get to the bottom of this one first.