Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, during his recent visit to Libya, the Foreign Secretary was made aware of the case of a 12-year-old boy from Mali who was picked up by the Libyan Coastguard following the death of his parents in the Mediterranean, and who was returned by that coastguard into a detention centre intended for adult males; and if so, what action they have taken to assist (1) that unaccompanied child, and (2) other similarly detained unaccompanied minors.

We are not aware of this particular case. We are concerned about the risk to unaccompanied minors who are detained in Libya and about detention conditions across the board. The UK is working to improve detention conditions through our programming. The key is to break the business model of smugglers and to prioritise interventions upstream in countries of origin and transit to reduce the need of migrants to leave their home country or move on from a safe third country in their region.