The Government advise nationals in difficulties to stay indoors, but what if they run out of food, what if there is no power, water or other utilities, or what if there is fire in the local area? What is the advice and message of hope for them then?
My right hon. Friend makes an extremely good point. The only advice that we can give through the Foreign Officeâthe only adviceâis to stay indoors, because of all the reasons that I have given during the statement about the jeopardy on the streets outside. We have changed the advice today to say that although we think that people should undoubtedly remain indoors if they can, if they do not, it is at their own risk. But they must make their decisions on the ground. Of course, there are those who know the situation around where they live extremely well and may well be able to exercise their judgment, but they do so at their own risk.
April 27, 2023
Good morning.
And
At the risk of sounding mean, I would like to point out that :
a) These so called UK Nationals are just Sudanese Nationals with British Passports.
b) I would like to give the UK Government some of my own advice, which is to stop handing out UK Passports like confetti and, to end dual nationality.
If we were to do that then UK Service Personnel would not have to risk their lives needlessly. Plus. Where are all these so called UK Citizens going to live when they get here ? The hotels are all full.
And finally. This shows the level of total disconnect between our political class and the REAL WORLD.
April 27, 2023
Agree – Stop Dual Nationality …you can only serve one master
April 27, 2023
The idea that the State is the âMasterâ to be serves is rather repugnant and is much of the current problem. The state should be the servant of the people, providing what is voted for and paid for in taxes. Not using taxes to coercing dangerous vaccines into people, lying to them, pushing lockdowns, road blocking, 15 minute cities, net zero, state monopolies in education, healthcare, HS2, test and trace, HS2, rigging energy markets, endless daft ret tape, moronic employment lawsâŠ
April 27, 2023
Not the state but the country
April 28, 2023
The inanimate âcountryâ is the master?
April 27, 2023
If these people were born in Sudan then they should STAY in Sudan. We really need to stop handing out British passports like confetti. It is symptomatic of this government’s lack of patriotism that they so undervalue the precious nature of being British. Nobody should be given a British passport unless they have lived – and paid taxes! – in the UK for a minimum of 10 years, and have no criminal convictions of any kind. You should also be obliged to relinquish any other nationality you previously had. British citizenship should be considered to be a priceless jewel, not just a bit of paper.
April 27, 2023
+many
April 27, 2023
Conflict of interest alert.
My wife and children hold dual passports. As a net contributor and with long anglo-ancestry I am pleased I can confer this privilege on them and can not see any reason why my children should not hold British citizenship.
If we were in their country and hostilities broke out (I have been in that situation for two coups) I would not be expecting our forces or government to come and save us. But I suspect that is why I am a net contributor.
An improvement to your suggestion about banning dual nationality would be Norman Tebbit’s test match test. Have dual nationality but declare one of them as prime. If the UK is not your prime nationality you can’t expect protection in your prime country nor should you really expect to receive pensions and benefits from UK taxpayers.
Other countries take a very dim view of dual nationality and if they discovered that your prime nationality was British they may well strip you of their nationality. This would give much pause for thought.
April 28, 2023
Quote âIf we were in their country âŠâ you chose to marry and have children who have a different country. You should move to âtheirâ country and make it âyourâ country too.
April 28, 2023
Hello mother.
April 27, 2023
Are there any relevant and useful precedents? I have a feeling that, as uncomfortable as it may be, UKG is under no obligation to rescue those in danger when the UK is not a belligerent engaged in that war. The duty to protect civilians in the law of amed conflict falls on the belligerents. However, prevention of a humanitarian disaster, I understood was a recognised casus belli but I could be mistaken. It seems the UK has little option but to negotiate safe passage with the belligerents. Presumably it is attempting to do so. Could not such negotiations include the provision of essential supplies and services, even if that means moving people to a safe place? the leverage for both is provided in the law of armed conflict: if the belligerents do not adequately protect civilians they would be guilty of war crimes and the UK must point that out and be prepared to act accordingly, with force if appropriate. After all, we do know excactly who is leading the belligerents.
In the meantime how is the FCO’s advice being communicated? BBC Overseas service? Email, Telephone?
April 27, 2023
It would be useful to know how many of these âBritish nationalsâ are people who have come to the UK and then gone back to their home in Sudan and a receiving benefits and a pension.
Given the average British tax payer pays ÂŁ5500 in tax and a pension is double that I think politicians need to be brave enough to tell their voters that two of them are working at the coal face to pay for somebody on the other side of the world.
April 27, 2023
It seems very unfair that some Sudanese are âBritishâ while others are not. Have you noticed that whatever country the USA starts âinvesting in politicsâ, there develops a war?
April 27, 2023
Javelin
Is it not time for a big rethink on the benefits and payment schemes?
Surely they should be based solely on time and payments in before being eligible for receipt of payments?
April 27, 2023
+++many
April 27, 2023
@Javelin – it would suggest with what is said to be 4,000 dual nationals in Sudan, that a good chunk of these are ‘boat’ people repatriating UK taxpayer money. Its not the people themselves in the wrong, it is the Government that actively peruses this policy for personal gratification.
Then just as our brave âLifeboatâ personal have to put their own lives on the line, they force our Armed forces to face unnecessary danger
April 27, 2023
Someone said 71 of them were NHS doctors, which begs the question is this why we are short of doctors? Are they on sabbatical, do we pay them an NHS wage to treat people in the Sudan?
April 27, 2023
I’ve just heard on the live HoC Sudan Statement at 14:13hrs that there are some people visiting Sudan from the UK whom have ‘refugee’ status in the UK ….the question was would they be allowed back in the UK
My question would have been ”why are we allowing people with refugee status to go on holiday back to Sudan”
April 27, 2023
Hmmm I wonder how long they were home in the Sudan too? There have been FO warnings about going there for a while havenât there?
April 27, 2023
Can you imagine a German ww2 refugee in the UK, returning to holiday in Germany during the ww2 âŠ..something wrong here !
April 27, 2023
Javelin. Fair enough to question it regarding ordinary benefits. But with state pensions, many people choose to retire outside the UK. The amount of pension they get is linked to how much NI they paid and not connected to their nationality either. So I don’t feel it’s in quite the same category.
In my case I worked in France for quite a time and am entitled to a pension from there. I wouldn’t be happy if they refused to pay it because I am living in the UK (though having said that, the French bureaucracy is refusing to pay it due to a technicality).
April 27, 2023
Retirement pension is not linked to how much NI a person paid into the system. Many people get a full pension and they haven’t paid a penny of NI. If you get child benefit or other DWP benefits an NI credit is given. In fact you don’t even have to live in the UK to get this. I have over 40 years of NI credits which I paid for but I’m not entitled to a full state pension. The whole system stinks and many people are now getting pensions from more than one country just because they have been lucky enough to live in more than one country.
April 27, 2023
Andrew Mitchell MP (FO Africa Minister) is happy to spend all ‘your’ money and grant everyone a gold visa
April 28, 2023
And a VOTE! One day the native British will be voted out.
April 27, 2023
Months ago the FO advised against travel to the Sudan.
Yesterday’s footage showed families with children boarding RAF planes.
Interviewed a number were on holiday.
Why we’re not their children in school?
Are we a soft touch or what?
April 27, 2023
+++many
April 27, 2023
Perhaps this sort of thing explains the absenteeism problem in British schools, children not even in the Country to go to school.
April 27, 2023
Armed factions are spraying bullets around the streets. I was just about to go out and buy a pint of milk from my Khartoum corner shop. Then I heard the FO advice and stayed home. Lucky me!
They take us for complete idiots.
I find the the suggestion that “you go outside at your own risk” even more annoying. Everything I actively do in my life is at my own risk and hopefully my own volition. I don’t want or need the government’s paternal “advice” (or even worse, permission) that I may eat a hamburger, drive a car at night or even to walk around in a war zone. It’s that “lock ’em down” Covid mentality showing through again.
April 27, 2023
How many of these nationals have dual nationality? Which nationality did they have first? How much taxpayer cash is being transferred to these people now stationed in Sudan through our pension and benefit system.
Have any of those returning from Sudan previously claimed asylum because Sudan was too dangerous for them to live in?
Whose responsibility is this really?
April 27, 2023
There is estimated half a million people with dual UK passports …WHY
April 27, 2023
@ glen cullen – note everyone of those half million will have been warned by the U.K. government from the outset that it cannot protect those holders against the actions of their other passport issuer.
April 28, 2023
Why not? My wife and children all have Italian and English passports. I could get an Italian one too if I could be bothered to get through the Italian embassy bureaucracy of waiting times, booking systems and hassle.
April 27, 2023
How can anuone have any respect for a party that kicks out excellent and sensible MPs like Andrew Bridgen?
We do not hang you for telling the truth Mr Bridgen no we do it merely to discourage any other MPs from telling the truth. We really cannot have that can we? People pointing to the 9.5% increases in still births 2021 to 2022 (figs for 2023 so far being still hidden it seems) the large excess death figures each week or looking at the reduced fertility figures or heart issue, blood clot issue⊠can we?
These are Worldwide issues, the vast net harms caused by the Covid vaccines will all come out like it or not. The Gross negligence of the regulators and ministers will come out too. Why on earth give them, even to young people who were never at any risk? Follow the money I assume, certainly not logic or science.
April 27, 2023
Weâre fortunate that this forum hasnât been cancelled by the conservative high command
April 27, 2023
Cannot be long before pointing out the statistical reality of the net harm Covid vaccines become a hate non crime or will it be a hate non crime. The idea that Bridgen is an anti-semite is clearly absurd. Nor even is Diane Abbott she is just rather daft and clumsy always has been and getting a bit past it now too.
Another follow on disaster will be the damage to confidence for taking vaccines that are worthwhile and do net good.
April 27, 2023
++I keep thinking that!
Are they watching and waiting to pounceâŠmeanwhile noting our innermost thoughts?
Maybe our opinions are more of that data they crave?
April 27, 2023
Assuming only a tiny proportion of the population of Sudan are engaged in fighting, are we looking at 45 million refugees coming this way soon, all with a valid claim for asylum?
April 27, 2023
@ Dave Andrews – who knows but we can rely upon it that if some or all of the 45 million do wish to come here, this rotten government is powerless to stop them.
April 27, 2023
Off topic
I see that having had their first feed on Raab’s Resignation, I read the Civil Service vultures are now circling Steve Barclay over his now alleged behaviour.
Just as I said last week, if Sunak agrees to accept Raab’s resignation, having not been found guilty of bullying, he would be surrendering control, and creating a precedent, and a way for Ministers to be picked off one by one.
Looks like that is exactly how it is being played out.
April 27, 2023
BA,
Not one for this government or any UK government reflecting the current makeup of the House of Commons. A question for a government reflecting the will of the people.
It is becoming clear on a daily basis that the civil service and the trade union that represents them have become a parallel political force in the conduct of the governance of the UK. There agenda is to remove from ministerial power anyone who can be recognised as a Brexiteer, so clearing the way for a Remainer based government to re-establish a relationship with the EU that questions UK sovereignty.
The evidence I see is:-
1. The coupe against the democratically elected government of Liz Truss.
2. The creation of a bullying agenda against a succession of ministers with strong beliefs in UK sovereignty. Priti Patel, Dominic Raab, and now Steve Barclay, all Brexiteers, such that there are hardly any Brexiteers left in Cabinet.
3. The Windsor Framework, a more restrictive version of the NIP with no get out clause, that retains the jurisdiction of the ECJ within NI and flies in the face of a sovereign United Kingdom.
4. Ask yourselves what is Sunak’s and this governments end game agenda.
The answer is to replace the senior echelon of the Whitehall civil service with a professional management team appointed by the minister, tasked with implementing government policy. Something the CS patently fail to do because they are too busy implementing their own policy. The abrasive Dominic Cummins was well down this radical thought process. Institutions like the BBC, the CS have been around long enough to have evolved beyond their intended purpose and not necessarily for the good of the people they serve, appart from themselves of course. I see no reason that either should be allowed to continue without radical reform or replacement.
April 27, 2023
+1 – Daft employment laws make a mess in the private sector too. Enabling ever more lawyers, layabouts etc. to parasite of the productive.
April 27, 2023
It seems some Sudanese people came to Britain claiming asylum, fleeing for their lives (whether they came by dinghy or not, I don’t know)
Having obtained a British passport, they are now happy to return to the country they fled in fear.
Curiouser and curiouser …………….
April 27, 2023
Everyone with a brain knows that every single asylum claim made in the UK is BOGUS. Every one of them. These people ALL pass through safe countries to get here, proving that safety is NOT their prime motivation. But the government is too stupid, and too weak, to say so. if they did, they could end the invasion instantly, by simply saying that every single migrant will be AUTOMATICALLY considered a BOGUS asylum seeker, their applications will NOT be considered, and they will ALL be returned to their country of ORIGIN as, being bogus asylum seekers, the non-refoulement rule will not apply. Problem immediately solved. But no, the government are just too useless to do this. I can’t wait to see the back of them.
April 27, 2023
Reminds me of the Steve Miller band old song:
“They got the money, hey, you know they got away
They headed down south and they’re still running today
Singin’, go on, take the money and run”
April 27, 2023
Everything anyone does is at their own risk, affecting themselves and often many others. People living locally within Sudan would be likely to familiar with their environment and circumstances. Embassies should too, and more so. Having plans prepared in the event of such emergencies occurring is a key purpose of their existence. âUndoubtedly remain indoorsâ is undoubtedly inadequate.
April 27, 2023
I have little sympathy for people who travel to a war zone. Why should we get them out? They got there under their own steam. Also, as others have asked, how many are also Sudanese nationals holding British passports and how did they come by those passports?
April 27, 2023
The gold visa costs a great deal of money âŠ.and a bung in the right envelope in the right hand
April 27, 2023
Why are they there? There has been serious trouble for a long time and either they have been there a long time or they have gone there recently knowing there is trouble.
Saint John cannot risk being firm so he takes the limp-wristed attitude as usual.
Why are we helping those who are using the UK’s weakness for their benefit and our disadvantage. As has been said recently, but not by Saint John of course, that many people who come here have no cultural connection and have no intention of adapting to ours.
April 27, 2023
â Stay indoorsâ.
HmmmmâŠhas a familiar ring.
April 27, 2023
My observation on this situation, is yes the Civil Service bailed out to save its own neck first.
Then the assumption that the UK has the man power and facilities to affect an efficient result â they don’t. The UK Armed forces as amazing and brave they are, they do not have sufficient numbers to do these spur of the moment gestures consistently, and they do keep cropping up. They barely have enough number to protect themselves. In MOD speak the UK no longer needs numbers it will be technology that gets us through. So why isnât it technology that is getting these people out of Sudan?
Continually the UK Governments keep kicking the Armed Forces in the teeth
April 27, 2023
Very few of our citizens find themselves inadvertently in Sudan, particularly after being advised not to go there. They are there by choice. They have chosen to visit family, work in a charity or medical facility. The UK government are right in offering an exit for any that want to leave and who can get to the points of exit on offer. They have offered the best advice they can to those in remote locations and those who choose to stay. Get out on your own initiative or keep your heads down until the bid for power around Khartoum is settled. What more can be expected.
April 27, 2023
So how do they feed themselves?
April 27, 2023
Unfortunately with some difficulty I imagine William, given that they are in a war zone but I’m interested in what more you think we should be doing?
As a veteran, I have no wish to see our military placed in any more danger than they already have been. I understand that some people had good reason to be there but presumably they would also have known the risks involved. I’m afraid that sometimes when folk ‘take a chance’, it doesn’t always end well. However, I don’t see that we have an obligation to save everyone, no matter the cost (and I’m pretty sure there would be ‘costs’ if we tried…)
April 27, 2023
Why have so many Sudanese (4,000+) been given Dual Nationality (British National) status âŠ.do we still give out UK passports to anybody willy-nilly or is this a Blaire legacy
April 27, 2023
Many are moaning that their extended families don’t hold British passports and so they will not be rescued. Quite right. We are fed up looking after the rest of the world.
April 27, 2023
Do these people hold dual British and Sudanese citizenship?
Sudan is known to be an extremely politically unstable country.
Why were people there anyway?
There might be a small number of various engineer types working on projects but surely not many and theyâd be in and out sharpish. And employers usually make their own evacuation arrangements.
April 27, 2023
The Tory Legacy = Levy, High Tax, High Immigration, and ICE Ban
April 27, 2023
So basically they should stay in unless they canât, in which case, they will have to go out. Up to them.
Iâm glad we have such towering intellects to work this out for us.
April 27, 2023
@ Barbara – indeed, although perhaps the critical part of the message was “at their own risk”, thereby to give the KC acting for the Government a leg to stand on when the compensation claims are litigated?
April 27, 2023
British passport holders should have gone straight to the airport while the cease fire
was called. If not they are now in trouble and difficult to rescue.
April 27, 2023
Home Office â 26 April 2023
Illegal Immigrants â 106
Boats â 4
April 27, 2023
Deported?…….Nil.
April 27, 2023
I see a well-known Home Secretary has said she has no plans to start looking at safe routes for refugees from Sudan. Of course not, it would be a waste of time, for those wishing to present themselves here as refugees do not need help from the Home Secretary and know she is powerless to stop them whatever route they choose.
What a time to own a four star hotel!
April 27, 2023
“The Government advise nationals in difficulties to stay indoors, but what if they run out of food.”
I wish this concern had extended to the people in this country during lockdown.
The Government ordered all UK residents in 2020 to stay indoors, but supermarkets refused to deliver food except to existing subscribers and state/council employees (‘key workers’), and in this area their local outlets had no food at all on the shelves.
If it had not been for the kindness of neighbours who used their cars to obtain scant commodities, we would have starved.
Such a different world politicians live in.
Reply I opposed the severe lockdowns at the time!
April 28, 2023
You’ve asked the question from the right person – the minister of state for development and Africa the Rt Hon the minister of plebs reknown – he could have told them ‘on yer bike’
April 28, 2023
BBC reporting that at least 24 NHS doctors with UK work permits are now trapped in their own country unable to return on the RAF flights ……they’re not reporting why the NHS are employing 24+ doctors from Sudan, where they’re needed, its a disgrace that we rob these 3rd world countrys of their doctors
Please please train UK doctors
April 29, 2023
The RAF is once again making use of our fleet of 11 C-130J Hercules aircraft in the Sudan evacuation. These aircraft are well suited to the special forces role, who have much experience in their use. They can land and take off on a sixpence in a way that their replacement, the A400M Atlas, cannot
Nobody wants to lose these invaluable aircraft. The MoD has just received a ÂŁ16billion uplift in their budget and for a few ÂŁmillion the Hercs could be kept. SoS Defence Ben Wallace and the new Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal Sir Richard Knighton should review this decision.