Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps is his Department is taking to support (a) journalists, (b) political figures, (c) students and (d) other human rights defenders in Eritrea who have been detained since the September 2001 Government crackdown.

We remain concerned about the human rights situation in Eritrea. The UK Government takes every opportunity to voice our concern about arbitrary arrests and detentions in Eritrea and has called for the release of those arrested and detained in this way. We have done so directly with the Government of Eritrea and publicly through our annual reporting on human rights and at the UN Human Rights Council, most recently in a statement by the UK's Ambassador for Human Rights on 21 June during the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur at the 47th session. Eritrea remains a priority country under our annual human rights reporting, and we will continue to monitor the situation there.