Oral Answers to Questions

Patrick Grady Excerpts

Tuesday 30th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[David Rutley]

As I said, Iran must stop using regional instability as cover to carry out its reckless acts. We recognise that it bears responsibility for any further escalation, and we are looking at all the tools that we have to bear down on the Iranian regime, including sanctions.

[Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)]

10. What recent assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the human rights situation in Eritrea.

[The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Mr Andrew Mitchell)]

We continue to press Eritrea bilaterally and at the UN Human Rights Council to end human rights violations. It may come as a surprise to the House to hear that Eritrea is an elected member of the UN Human Rights Council.

[Patrick Grady]

As chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Eritrea, I often hear the country described as the North Korea of Africa. Young people are conscripted indefinitely, and critics of the regime are arbitrarily detained and disappeared. Does the Minister agree that that perhaps explains why over 90% of asylum claims from Eritreans in the UK are granted by the Home Office? What more can the Government do to take steps to ensure an end to human rights abuses in Eritrea and elsewhere in the horn of Africa, which are push factors behind irregular arrivals in the UK?