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This petition was submitted during the 2017 to 2019 Parliament

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Closed petition Ban the sale of weapons to countries with human rights concerns.

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In 2016, The Committee on Arms Export Controls started to investigate the use of UK-manufactured weapons in Yemen. In 2018, they concluded UK nearly doubled the value of arms sales to countries on the government’s list of human rights abusers in the previous year.

They found that the government has made weapons deals with eighteen different countries who perpetuate human rights abuses, including China, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Israel, Egypt and Pakistan. The profits from selling to these countries have soared. Brunei could potentially be added to this list now too.

Commons written answers by Defence Minister Mark Lancaster admitted that 282 MoD and civilian staff work with Saudi armed forces. Mr Lancaster said staff were “on secondment” giving “routine engineering support” and “generic training support” for UK-supplied aircraft -operated by the Royal Saudi Air Force, including jets operating in Yemen

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    This petition will stay open until 6 November 2019.