The Halo Trust works around the world clearing land contaminated after war (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Boats run by criminal gangs. Refugees stuck in expensive hotels. It’s easy to see why many people want the government to stop illegal .
As a retired Major General who runs one of Britain’s largest overseas charities, I can see a way to address the issue.
Rather than pay billions to keep refugees in hotels, the UK could invest more in programmes to help people stay closer to their homes in safety.
The HALO Trust was founded in in 1988. We are famous for destroying landmines – thanks to Princess Diana, who visited us in Angola in 1997.
But we destroy far more than landmines. We clear unexploded bombs and rockets. And we help secure rifles, pistols, and bullets. In short, we take care of anything that goes bang. How does this relate to the small boats crisis?
Recent statistics tell us that the largest group of illegal migrants coming to the UK is from Afghanistan. Many come here because life is too dangerous for them at home.
Landmines and other explosives prevent farmers from growing crops and stop children walking safely to school. What if they didn’t have to come here in the first place?
Life in Afghanistan today is tough, particularly for women and girls, who are denied the most basic rights. Deadly landmines, however, are indiscriminate and blight the country for everyone.
If you remove these explosives, people can live in safety in their own country, without risking their lives at sea in search of a better future.
I have seen entire towns built on former battlegrounds or minefields in Afghanistan. I have talked to displaced Afghan families who have built new homes on land we have cleared of landmines. But handing over safe, cleared land is not enough. People also need livelihoods.
The HALO Trust was founded by two former Scottish soldiers who trained local people in Afghanistan to clear landmines to a professional standard. They rightly thought that employing locals was a better idea than paying high wages for Western military personnel to do the same thing.
Today, HALO has 12,000 highly trained women and men working in nearly 30 countries. In Afghanistan alone, we employ over 2000 staff. Each employee has about 20 dependents reliant on their salary.
So that’s well over 40,000 people able to stay in Afghanistan, supported by a decent local wage. But it doesn’t end there: we calculate that four million Afghans make a living on land made safe by HALO.
The British taxpayer has helped these Afghan families build a life in Afghanistan, rather than risking their lives on illegal boats or subsisting in limbo in hotels in British seaside resorts.
It costs the government just £2million a year to help HALO support over 40,000 Afghans and keep many, many more safely at home. Compare that sum to the millions of pounds Britain spends every day on housing Afghans here.
It’s a similar story for , Iraq, and Libya, where HALO also works. And with under rubble and over a million people already displaced inside Lebanon, we know that more refugees will want to be on the move.
The Labour government has an opportunity to re-frame overseas aid as a form of defence, rather than altruism or ‘woke tokenism’.
By funding organisations like HALO to clear up after conflict, Sir has a thrifty and humane solution that helps tackle migration at source.