Approval of Australian military exports to Saudi Arabia and UAE condemned by human rights groups

Australia has approved at least 14 permits for the export of military goods to Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates over the last year and a half, despite their involvement in the Yemen conflict which has created a humanitarian crisis.

Department of Defence has also revealed it has approved permits for $580,000 of military goods to Turkey since late 2019, even though the defence minister, Linda Reynolds, announced a “pause” of such exports at that time because of concerns the country’s incursion into north-east Syria was “causing great civilian suffering”.

The latest figures have prompted calls for the Australian government to show more transparency in the way it discloses exports of weapons and other military goods, which are shrouded in secrecy.

“It is deeply disturbing that our government could allow weapons to be sold to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who the UN has said are responsible for breaches of international humanitarian law, including the killing of children, in Yemen,” the chief executive of Save the Children Australia, Paul Ronalds, said.

The government has not released information about the particular equipment that has been exported, arguing such details were “commercial in confidence”. But it said such goods can include weapons and munitions but also armour, radios, simulators and training equipment “which are not necessarily for a military purpose”.

Related: 'Blanket secrecy' surrounds Australian weapons sales to countries accused of war crimes

Defence said all export applications were “assessed on their individual merits against 12 legislative criteria that consider international obligations, national security, regional security implications, foreign policy and human rights, informed by the contemporary geopolitical situation”.

A spokesperson for the department told Guardian Australia permits would be refused “if it is assessed that there is an overriding risk that the goods and/or technology may be used contrary to the national interest or to violate human rights”.

The latest figures on exports to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Turkey were disclosed in response to questions on notice from a Senate committee.

Defence said five permanent permits were issued for military goods to Saudi Arabia between 23 August 2019 and 26 October 2020. Over the same period, nine such permits were issued for the export of defence material to the UAE.

Defence did not state the total dollar value of those exports, nor the precise type of goods. But it confirmed that since 15 October 2019, Defence had “approved permits for the export to Turkey of military goods with an estimated total value of $577,500”.

That is the date when Linda Reynolds announced a review of arms exports to Turkey because its incursion into north-eastern Syria – with airstrikes and artillery barrages aimed at US-backed Kurdish forces – was “causing great civilian suffering” and had “grave consequences for regional security”.

“In light of recent developments, I have asked Defence to consult right across government before any new or pending export permits to Turkey are considered, so I’ve asked for a pause,” the defence minister said at the time.

While disclosing that further permits had been issued for exports to Turkey since then, defence maintained that it had acted in line with Reynolds’ comments.

Defence said it had worked with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and other departments “to ensure that its assessments of proposed exports to Turkey were informed by up-to-date information and advice reflecting changes in geostrategic circumstances”.

“All export applications, including to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are assessed on their individual merits against the 12 legislative criteria and informed, as required, by consultation with other government departments, including Dfat,” Defence said in a response to questions.

“Defence does not comment on individual export applications, assessments or permits to any particular country due to commercial-in-confidence considerations.”

But Elaine Pearson, the Australia director of Human Rights Watch, said it was “very disappointing to learn that Australian arms sales to Saudi Arabia and UAE were continuing in the face of pervasive evidence of airstrikes and other attacks by the Saudi and UAE-led coalition in Yemen that has unlawfully killed civilians”.

Pearson said the government should not hide behind “commercial-in-confidence” clauses as a reason for withholding information.

Ronalds, from Save the Children Australia, also called for “full transparency” on any approvals.

“The Australian public has a right to know which countries are buying them, what they are buying and track where they are being used,” he said.

Ronalds said the war in Yemen had seen as many as 85,000 children under five die of starvation, “while more than 24 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance – roughly the equivalent of the entire population of Australia”.

“Yemen is the biggest humanitarian crisis on the planet and it is unthinkable that the Australian government could be complicit, fuelling war crimes by allowing military goods to be sold without transparency or accountability,” Ronalds said.

The Greens’ spokesperson for peace, Jordon Steele-John, who submitted the questions, said it was “absolutely unacceptable for Australia to be exporting weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates”.

“In support of the Yemeni people who have suffered through more than six years of endless violence, Australia must end all export of weapons to the countries who are backing the civil war and urge all parties to work together for peace in the region,” Steele-John said.

A report presented to the UN human rights council in September said the parties to the conflict in Yemen “continue to show no regard for international law or the lives, dignity, and rights of people in Yemen, while third states have helped to perpetuate the conflict by continuing to supply the parties with weapons”.

Related: Yemen civil war: the conflict explained

Concerns have been raised about civilian deaths in airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition, which intervened in 2015 on behalf of Yemen’s internationally-recognised government against Houthi rebels aligned with a former president. The Houthis, with a disputed degree of assistance from Iran, have used drone and missile strikes in Saudi Arabia.

The UK suspended new arms sales to Saudi Arabia in June 2019 when they were ruled unlawful by the court of appeal, which said British ministers had not properly assessed the risk to civilians. It has since resumed sales, prompting a new legal challenge.

Germany suspended arms exports to Saudi Arabia in 2018 amid outrage over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Australia’s Defence Strategic Goods List specifies “a broad range of equipment as military goods”, Defence told the Senate committee.

“For example, export permits for military goods can include a firearm for a shooting competition, explosive devices for mining operations, and radios,” it said.