Alex Rowley MSP met with a group of people from Yemen on their visit to the Scottish Parliament, where he echoed their calls to raise awareness of the crisis unfolding in the middle east country.
The Scottish Labour MSP has previously raised a motion in the Parliament to draw attention to the conflict taking place, and it has now achieved the required cross-party support to be eligible for debate.
Mr Rowley has confirmed he is hoping to hold the debate sometime in the New Year following the parliamentary recess.
The ongoing conflict, which has seen deadly clashes and airstrikes, has sparked a humanitarian crisis. Over three million people have been forced to flee their homes and nearly 7000 have been killed.
Commenting on the crisis Mr Rowley said:
“What we are seeing taking place in Yemen is a tragedy. Over seven million children are in need of protection assistance as well as nearly 400 that have died as a result of the conflict. Over 80% of the population are in need of life-saving aid.
“The situation is continuing to get worse, with rising fuel shortages, rising food prices and a severe lack of basic services. The people of Yemen are suffering and we must do all that we can to raise awareness of what is going on, and urge the international community to do all that it can to stop this situation spiralling further out of control.
“I hope that when we debate this in the Parliament we can agree a consensus that promotes peace for the region. What is key, is that we must discuss the policy of arms sales from the UK to the region, in particular Saudi Arabia, which is seen as exacerbating the situation.
“The arms trade should not be fuelling such human suffering, and I believe we have a responsibility to examine the relationship the arms trade has with humanitarian crises such as the one we are seeing going on in Yemen.
“I hope that the Parliament will agree to the desire for a peaceful end to this crisis in Yemen and support further measures to stop more incidents like this taking place as we move forward”
