UK Parties Call for Ending Secretive Gulf Funding Programs
UK political parties warn against the possibility of London's involvement in violating human rights in Gulf countries, especially Bahrain, through 'secretive' funding programs in the Gulf.
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British MPs have called on the government to suspend 'secretive' multimillion-pound Gulf funding programs
Several British parties have called on the government to suspend 'secretive' multimillion-pound funding programs at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. They warned against the possibility of London's involvement in the violation of human rights in Gulf countries, especially in Bahrain.
The British newspaper, Financial Times, stated that these parties said that the programs supported by the Integrated Activity Fund (IAF) had been run with “absolute minimum levels of accountability, transparency, and due diligence in spite of being repeatedly implicated in human rights violations."
They underscored that London spent 53 million pounds on these programs over a period of four years, according to a report due to be published on Tuesday.
The British newspaper, the Guardian, reported that "between 2011-2020, the UK licensed £16.8bn of arms to countries criticized by Freedom House, a US government-funded human rights group."
The newspaper added that the UK sold arms and military equipment to 39 countries out of the 53 countries castigated for a poor record on political and human rights, as per the group's list.
