UK hosts secretive annual arms fair
Saeed Pourreza
Press TV, London
A candlelight vigil is held in the heart of London to shed light on something that affects us all.
Organized by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade and Palestine Action, and the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, it is a call on the UK's interior ministry- the Home Office- to stop its secretive annual event known as Security and Policing, held only an hour's drive from the British Houses of Parliament.
These protesters are telling us they have gathered here this evening to highlight how the UK government is benefiting from selling arms, surveillance and other such equipment to some of the world's repressive regimes.
Up to 70 countries are invited, among them the UAE and Saudi Arabia- their envoys rubbing shoulders with UK officials at the exhibition, now in its fortieth year.
The key focus of the fair this year is border control and surveillance. The products on sale are designed to harass refugees and immigrants, many of them fleeing conflict.
And there is no shortage of companies selling their tools of repression; one is the Israeli regime’s NSO group, the creator of the notorious Pegasus spyware. Another is the UK's BAE systems that has made some 20 billion pounds in weapons sales to Saudi Arabia since the start of its devastating war on Yemen in 2015.
The arms fair will soon end, but not the arms trade; and the protesters here say neither will their campaign, until the UK bids farewell to the arms trade.
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