In her role as the Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Fiona contributed to a webinar on FoRB and Forced Migration. Fiona's full speech can be read below,
"As Vice-Chair of the APPG on International Freedom or Religion or Belief and of the APPG on Yazidis, I welcome today’s webinar exploring the impact of Freedom of Religion or Belief violations as a driver of forced migration. A particular welcome to all the speakers who are giving their time and who I know will provide highly expert and, in many cases, moving accounts of the cases of severe persecution based on religion or belief which we have, all too tragically, witnessed around the world in recent years.
In Myanmar in 2012 tens of thousands of Rohingyas were forced into segregation through the Rakhine State Action Plan which promoted the permanent segregation of the Rohingya. Many were detained in camps, ghettos and so-called prison villages suffering overcrowding, hunger and illness, and subject to a range of physical assaults and degradation. Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh. Of an estimated 1.2 – 1.4 million Rohingyas living in Rakhine State in 2014, approximately 800,000 have subsequently fled to camps in Bangladesh.
In 2014, Daesh attached Yazidis in Sinjar, Iraq, subjecting them to a range of reported atrocities, including murder, kidnapping, hostage taking, suicide meetings, enslavement, sale into forced marriage, trafficking, rape, sexual slavery, the abuse of children and eight years after those attacks, over 2,700 women and children are still missing, and shortly after that attack on Sinjar, Daesh attacked Nineveh Plains, forcing over 125,000 Christians to flee overnight.
We will never know the numbers of North Koreans who have fled their homeland to escape persecution over many decades, how many have died on the way or, if they escape death, were returned to be tortured or in the case of women be subject to such abuses as forced abortions if they have become pregnant by someone other than a North Korean, and even if they manage to escape to a country of refuge, the challenges of acclimatising to life outside a country which is as one escapee described, “one large prison camp” are very difficult for those of us who have lived in freedom to comprehend.
And over more recent years as we hear the almost unbelievable numbers, now into millions of Uyghurs detained in so-called re-education camps in China, thousands of Uyghurs Muslims from China have fled to escape state persecution to many countries –an estimated 50,000 Uyghurs are refugees in Turkey making it the largest Uyghur diaspora in the world. There are even 2000 Uyghurs reportedly living in Afghanistan – now potentially under threat there from the Taliban with fears they could be repatriated to China.
And in Afghanistan too, in the Autumn of 2021 Taliban fighters forced over 4000 Hazaras from their home claiming they have no ownership over their land, leaving them stranded without food or shelter. I conducted a deep dive into threats to religious minority groups from the Taliban and was deeply saddened to hear of the fate of some Hazaras who had been left wandering the forests only to be found beheaded by the roadside.
We continue to hear of the suffering in Nigeria as a result of violence there. Only this week, another of our Vice-Chairs of the OFRB APPG, the redoubtable Baroness Cox, returned from a visit to Nigeria’s Middle Belt. She says: -
“The violence has displaced millions and appears designed to reduce the number of indigenous Christians in the region. Inasmuch as the attacks are intended to destroy ethnoreligious communities, they may rise to the level of ethnic cleansing or even genocide. We witnessed the ruins of homes, farmland, food stores, churches, pastors’ homes and an orphanage, all attacked by Fulani militia in the past seven months…Displaced people in the Middle Belt are forced to rely on aid from under-resourced local churches, small non-governmental organisations (NGOs), or the generosity of their extended family…Second-order effects of mass displacement are beginning to be felt: educational outcomes are cratering; use of narcotics among young people is spreading; and young children are increasingly vulnerable to trafficking.”
As Baroness Cox says, these are the tragic impacts of FoRB violations which then drive forced migration – violations as we have heard which can be by state actors or non-state actors. It is vital that the issues we hear of today, which have persisted for years, reach a wider audience and that practical solutions to address them are discussed at the highest level.
The UK is doing good work – in March 2021 the UK Government’s Joint Analysis of Conflict and Stability was updated to include a section on atrocity crimes so that reports take into account a country’s record of atrocities, human rights violations and abuses and tensions between population groups. The FCDO works with the UN Secretary General to support flexible deployment of tools by the UN to help deal with situations upstream, including early warning mechanisms, mediation, preventative diplomacy and peacebuilding. And in 2021/22 the UK will have spent £874 million tackling conflict and instability through the Cross-Government Conflict, Stability and Security Fund.
But as I said last week both in a side event to the Human Rights Council and in a Westminster Hall debate here in the House of Commons, as I reflected on the fact that the Truro Review’s three year period for implementation will shortly be upon us – more needs to be done.
That is why I am pleased that the UK will be hosting a major ministerial conference on FoRB in July, titled “Freedom to Believe – for everyone, everywhere”. It will be a major international gathering and an opportunity for us as a nation to support FORB as a right for all and to agree pathways to action with partners internationally. The conference will be supplemented in June and July by an active FORB fringe of, we hope, over 100 events in and around Parliament and beyond, both in-person and virtual. I do hope that many of you joining us today will already be planning events around the Ministerial. Do please let my office know of your plans so that they can be promoted as part of this major international event. Above all, we need to find solutions.
Can I once again thank all our speakers, many, indeed most of whom I know and work with personally in my role as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, and whose work I deeply respect."