Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions she has had with her Mexican counterpart on reports that the number of people that have disappeared in the country has reached 100,000.

We are deeply concerned that official statistics have recorded 100,000 disappeared people in Mexico. On 2 March I [Minister Ford] discussed human rights with the Mexican Minister for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights. We are working with the Federal, State and municipal governments in Mexico on the development of a new investigation protocol to support law enforcement agencies in the investigation of crimes. We welcome the initiative from the Mexican Government to develop a new national search plan and the creation of the National Centre for Human Identification. We also welcome the Mexican Interior and Foreign Ministries' commitment to address areas highlighted by the report of the UN Committee for Enforced Disappearances following the Committee's visit to Mexico in November 2021.