The view from a D Telegraph reporter.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnis...risis-at-home/
"Sorry, but I am puzzled by the huge fuss over evacuating British nationals from Sudan. As usual, much of our media class seized the opportunity to bash the Government for inefficiency and callousness.I thought the response was pretty prompt under the dire circumstances, although aggrieved reporters seemed to think people could magically be teleported from
the chaotic carnage in Khartoum. I didn’t hear anyone ask: “Why is Britain obliged to offer a free rescue service to 4,000 people with dual passports who travelled to a war zone against official recommendations?”
In fact, UK Government advice is clear. Dual nationals in the country of their other nationality are not entitled to assistance. The vast majority of those being rescued are, to all intents and purposes, Sudanese.
Some gratitude to the British taxpayer who is footing the (presumably vast) bill would be welcome. I was intrigued to learn that the UK is remarkably generous with dual nationality which many other countries simply do not allow. Germany asks people with two passports to decide by the age of 18 which country they wish to be citizens of. Sounds sensible.
But this isn’t really about Sudan. What I want to know is, why is it possible for
the British Government to mount a rapid response to a humanitarian crisis in a foreign country, while ignoring a humanitarian crisis in our own backyard?
Maybe if we put all the thousands of
patients who are waiting a disgracefully long time for cancer care, people whose cancer operations have been postponed (striking doctors and nurses, take a bow!) or people who now have untreatable Stage 4 cancer (because it wasn’t picked up early enough) in apartment blocks and strafed them with gunfire then, perhaps, they might receive the urgent help the Government was able to whistle up for Sudan.
Am I the only one watching the 24/7 coverage of Khartoum, who thinks, where on earth are our priorities?"
Personally this brings to mind a declaration from the German government some years ago, that they were going to no longer go to extreme efforts to rescue German tourists who went on jeep-safaris into Morocco or Algeria and were taken hostage by terrorists, and this after numerous warnings about the danger. It's not exactly the same, but many similar elements.