London, UK — Rt Hon Tim Loughton MP, Co-Chair of All Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet raised the Tibet issue with Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP, the Secretary of State for International Development, at the House of Commons, on Thursday, May 2, 2019.
The Secretary of State for International Development noted that the Department for International Development (DeFiD) provides funding to the UN Refugee Agency to prioritise the greatest humanitarian and protection needs of refugees globally, this includes Tibetan refugees in need of urgent life-saving assistance.
Loughton informed that he would be attending the 8th WPCT for Tibet, together with Member for Dundee, marking 60 years of invasion and oppression of Tibetan people, a million lives lost, oppression of culture, language and human rights of those people. Many of them are refugees in Dharamshala who are in desperate need of our help to keep the spirit of Tibet alive.
“Can we do more to help these refugees in their culture and education programmes which they value so much?” asked Loughton.
The Secretary of State for International Development once again emphasised that DeFID funding is very much focussed on education and also on humanitarian assistance and support for refugees.
“I will undertake to talk to my colleagues both at the DCMS and FCO to find out what more we can do to support the culture and heritage of the Tibetan people” asserted Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP.
Following this reply, Hon Kerry McCarthy, a Member of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet, remarked “I am very glad Minister has taken an interest in Tibet. I would also urge her to look at the impact of climate change on what is often dubbed as the Third Pole – melting of Himalayan glaciers, which has a huge impact on Tibetan area and is overlooked when we talk about climate change?”
The Secretary of State for International Development affirmed that the ways that Britain can contribute most to 17 global goals: healthcare, and climate partnership – being key three more help on climate change. The PM is UN Secretary General’s Climate Resilience Champion is going to do much more in the forthcoming months.
