UK urged to help Burma refugees

Many Burmese have been forced to flee to Thailand

A UK parliamentary committee has said that Britain should quadruple the amount of aid it gives to refugees in Burma over the next six years.

In a report, a House of Commons committee said other countries with poor human rights records got much more aid from Britain compared with Burma.

The head of the committee, Malcolm Bruce, said the extra money was needed to help displaced people.

Hundreds of thousands have fled or are in hiding from Burma's military regime.

The report of the House of Commons International Development Committee said Britain should work with the United Nations to ensure that the aid reached the refugees themselves and did not benefit the Burmese military government.

'A scandal'

"UK aid to Burma is unacceptably low. Burma receives the lowest aid per head in the world for a poor country", the reports says.

"Given the pernicious human rights abuses and dire poverty levels within Burma, this is a scandal. We believe that the UK should quadruple the aid it gives to Burma by 2013".

The current amount of aid disbursed by the UK government for the 2007-2008 fiscal year is £8.8m.

Burma receives the lowest aid per head in the world for a poor country UK parliamentary report

The committee criticises the fact that other countries with a poor human rights record, like Zimbabwe, receive more aid than Burma.

It also urged the UK government to do more to dissuade other countries - especially India - from engaging with Burma.