Category Archives: Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

‘Don’t be naive like I was’: UK academic advises Cop28 attenders to stay safe

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Matthew Hedges, tortured in UAE in 2018, tells reporters and activists to take clean phones and watch who they deal with

Journalists and campaigners attending the Cop28 climate conference in Dubai should “not be naive” and take steps to protect their physical and digital security, a British academic who was tortured in the summit’s host country has warned.

Matthew Hedges, who was detained in the United Arab Emirates for seven months in 2018, advised reporters and activists to take new, clean phones, think carefully about who they deal with and how and where they protest.

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Families criticise UK government’s repatriation guidance in Gaza conflict

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Relative ‘shocked’ by advice for family members who crossed into Egypt to split temporarily and apply for reunification from Britain

Relatives of British citizens recently evacuated from Gaza and those waiting to return to the UK have criticised the government’s repatriation guidance, as UK officials continue to support nationals crossing into Egypt.

Ahmad Abou-Foul’s family safely crossed from Gaza into Egypt on 3 November. He said they were “shocked” after arriving in Cairo when UK immigration officers advised the individuals with British passports to return to the UK with their children, and once there, start a reunification process for their Palestinian spouses.

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Foreign Office failing to help Liverpool teacher stuck in Gaza, says husband

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Feiz Chihaoui says he was told wife Islam Alashi, Palestinian national with a visa to remain in UK, not entitled to help to leave

The husband of a teacher from Liverpool who is stuck in Gaza has criticised the Foreign Office for failing to help his wife reach safety.

Islam Alashi, who teaches English as a second language, travelled to Gaza in September to visit family. She has been stuck there amid Israeli bombardment since the conflict with Hamas began on 7 October.

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‘Handed a death sentence’: UK doctor forced to return to Gaza from Egypt

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Foreign Office accused of ‘grotesque failure’ as Dr Ahmed Sabra says he and other UK nationals have been sent back over border

A British consultant cardiologist based in Swansea has said he is being “handed a death sentence” after being forced to return to Gaza over the border from Egypt at the Rafah crossing on Wednesday.

Dr Ahmed Sabra said: “I am making a desperate appeal to the public that hold British values to help us. We are being handed a death sentence. Gaza is the most dangerous place in the world.

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UK withdraws some embassy staff from Lebanon and tells nationals to leave

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Foreign Office says situation has ‘potential to deteriorate quickly’ after Israeli and Hezbollah forces clash

The Foreign Office has withdrawn some embassy staff from Lebanon and is advising British nationals to leave the country while they still can amid increasing concern about violence and unrest connected to the conflict in Gaza.

“Events in Lebanon are fast moving. The situation has potential to deteriorate quickly and with no warning,” the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said in a statement, which advised Britons in Lebanon to register with the embassy and make plans to leave while possible.

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UK government accused of separating children from parents in Gaza

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British nationals say dependants trying to leave conflict zone via Rafah crossing have been left off Foreign Office lists

The government has been accused of separating British children in Gaza from their mothers after it was revealed that citizens without passports had been left off its safe passage list.

The names of British citizens allowed to leave Gaza for Egypt via the Rafah crossing have been added to a list but, some have said their dependants have not been included by the Foreign Office.

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‘Failed to be a critical friend’: UK accused of taking eye off Israel-Palestine crisis

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Critics say government shies away from standing up to Netanyahu in tilt to Indo-Pacific and pursuit of Middle East trade deals

Concerns that the UK Foreign Office has neglected the Israel-Palestine conflict in its tilt to the Indo-Pacific and the pursuit of trade deals across the Middle East is to be investigated by the foreign affairs select committee.

Alicia Kearns, the chair of the committee, which will start holding evidence sessions on the issue in November, has been one of the most prominent MPs warning that a crisis was brewing that required greater attention and a more robust approach from the UK towards Israel’s new government.

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First UK nationals leave Gaza via Rafah crossing, says Foreign Office

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Relatives of the 200 British or dual nationals trying to leave describe scenes of chaos and desperation

The families of British citizens trapped in Gaza have said it is devastating that their loved ones have been turned away from the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, as the Foreign Office said the first UK nationals had made it through.

Hundreds of foreign passport holders and injured Palestinians requiring hospital treatment crossed into Egypt on Wednesday after more than three weeks of conflict in which thousands of people have been killed.

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UK politicians lack humanity, says son of doctor trapped in Gaza

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People with families in Gaza call on British government to help get them out and to join calls for ceasefire

On Friday evening, as Israeli air and ground forces ramped up their operations in the Gaza Strip and a communications blackout fell across the embattled territory, Salim Hammad received a text from the UK Foreign Office notifying him of a possible increase in attacks and violence.

“What are we supposed to do with that information?” said Salim, a 34-year-old doctor in Oxford whose father, Abdel, is stuck at the Rafah border crossing.

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BA and Virgin Atlantic suspend all flights between UK and Israel

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Airlines make decision for safety reasons as MPs and families call on UK to evacuate nationals from Gaza

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have suspended all flights between the UK and Tel Aviv in Israel, as countries around the world scramble to evacuate citizens amid the mounting crisis.

BA earlier had to divert a flight to Tel Aviv back to the UK because of security concerns, and said it took the decision after “the latest assessment of the situation”.

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UK outspends rest of Europe on housing asylum seekers by at least 40% a person

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Exclusive: Report by aid campaign One finds costs now take up nearly a third of the official aid budget

The UK is spending 40% a person more than any other European country on housing asylum seekers with the costs taking up nearly a third of the official aid budget, which forced a 16.4% cut in the amount of aid spent overseas in 2022.

The findings come in a report by One, the aid campaign, which argues the proportion of the aid budget being spent on housing refugees in the UK is totally out of sync with its neighbours and is making the British aid budget both unpredictable and unmanageable

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UK decides not to call for release of Briton held in India on terror charges

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Public demand for Jagtar Singh Johal to be set free is ‘not in his best interests’, says Asia minister

The UK government has decided not to call for the release of a British man held in an Indian jail for five years, saying it would not be in his best interests.

There have been repeated calls for Britain to do more to secure the release of Jagtar Singh Johal, who claims to have been tortured and forced to make a confession. He faces terrorism charges and the first stages of his trial have just started after repeated delays caused by disputes over evidence.

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UK foreign secretary to challenge China over support for Russia in Ukraine war

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James Cleverly to say during visit to Beijing this week that China has ‘a responsibility on the global stage’

The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, will challenge Chinese officials in Beijing on Wednesday over their growing military support for Russia, but is intent that his meetings are seen as the revival of a political dialogue that eventually revives UK trade with China.

Ahead of the meetings, he said that no major international issue could be solved without China but added that the country had to live up to its international commitments and obligations.

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China’s new London embassy on hold pending Westminster intervention

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Deadline has passed for Beijing to appeal against Tower Hamlets council’s rejection of plans

China has temporarily shelved plans to build a new embassy in London, angrily accusing the British government of not doing enough to force through planning permission for the project.

China had been given until Thursday to file an appeal to Tower Hamlets council in east London after the proposals for the embassy were rejected.

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Foreign Office failed to notice torture of British academic in UAE, watchdog finds

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Parliamentary ombudsman says Matthew Hedges was let down by UK government during imprisonment

The UK’s parliamentary ombudsman has found that the Foreign Office “failed to notice signs of torture” when officials visited a British academic imprisoned in the United Arab Emirates.

Matthew Hedges was convicted on spying charges by the UAE in 2018 after travelling to Dubai to conduct research for his PhD at Durham University. He spent six months in prison, where he has said he had been handcuffed, drugged and questioned for hours, before being pardoned from a life sentence for spying.

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UK imposes sanctions on Russian judges for sentencing of Putin opponent

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British-Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza lost his appeal against a 25-year prison term on Monday

The UK government has imposed sanctions on those involved in the “deplorable” sentencing of the dual-national dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza after a Russian court dismissed his appeal against a 25-year sentence.

Six figures – three judges, two prosecutors and an expert witness – will face sanctions for their role in a “politically motivated conviction”.

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UK inaction let Wagner group flourish and grow, say MPs

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Foreign affairs select committee condemns government’s ‘dismal lack of understanding’ about group’s hold in Africa

A decade-long failure by the British government has allowed the Wagner network to grow, spread its tentacles deep into Africa and exploit vulnerable countries, according to a highly critical report from the UK’s foreign affairs select committee.

It called on the government to proscribe the Wagner group in the UK and to make a far more concerted effort to stop it using the City of London as a financial centre.

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UK must label Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as terror group, says thinktank

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Report from rightwing thinktank calls for tougher sanctions on Iran as October expiry of UN sanctions looms

The October expiry of UN sanctions limiting Iran’s missile programme must become a hard deadline for the UK to adopt a tougher policy that includes proscription of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a rightwing thinktank has warned.

The report from the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) is the second from a right-of-centre thinktank in two days demanding tougher action on Iran, and suggests that the UK ministers’ preferred strategy of introducing an Iran-specific sanctions regime that could lead to sanctions for activities outside Iran has fallen flat with Tory hawks.

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Foreign Office cannot say how many climate officials it has

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Exclusive: Former envoy raises concerns over possible ‘deliberate defunding of climate diplomacy under Sunak government’

The UK Foreign Office has said it does not know how many of its officials and diplomats are working on climate change and energy issues, in response to freedom of information requests.

The government has frequently described itself as a world leader on climate issues and the Foreign Office recently stated that “climate change remains an area of utmost importance and is a central focus of our diplomatic relations on a daily basis”.

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Keir Starmer considers ditching Labour pledge to reinstate DfID

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Exclusive: Dropping promise to restore Department for International Development would follow series of U-turns

Keir Starmer is considering dropping a promise to reinstate the Department for International Development (DfID), prompting anger from senior Labour figures and high-profile names in the international development world.

The Labour leader promised last year to restore the department, which was scrapped in 2020 by Boris Johnson, who called it a “giant cashpoint in the sky”.

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