Asked by: Baroness Harman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, which officials in his Department have visited Rebecca Prosser during her detention in Indonesia; and when and for how long each such visit was.
Answered by Lord Swire
Members of the consular team in Jakarta have visited Rebecca Prosser twice. The first visit took place on 2 June, shortly after her arrest, and lasted 30 minutes. The second, which lasted over two hours, took place on 10 September when she was moved from house arrest into a detention facility. Normal practice is to visit detainees in Indonesia every three months.
Consular staff are in regular contact with Ms Prosser’s employer’s representatives, her legal team and her family. Since court proceedings began, we have provided a weekly written update to Ms Prosser, her family and their MPs. Our most recent contact with Ms Prosser’s family was on 21 October.
Asked by: Baroness Harman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when he or ministers in his Department will next meet their Indonesian countertparts; and if he will ensure that the detention of Rebecca Prosser in Indonesia will be raised at such meetings.
Answered by Lord Swire
In consultation with Ms Prosser’s legal team and advisors, the case has been raised at senior level on ten separate occasions. I personally raised it with the Indonesian Foreign Minister in September at the UN General Assembly and it was last raised on 9 October by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Director General Economic & Consular with the Indonesian Director General of Protocol and Consular Affairs. We plan to raise the case again on 29 October during a meeting in London with the representatives of the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Asked by: Baroness Harman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, who will represent the Government at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Abuja.
Answered by Mark Simmonds
No UK Minister was available to attend the World Economic Forum being held in Abuja on 7 – 9 May. We did propose to send senior officials, but the organisers of the World Economic Forum declined this request.
Asked by: Baroness Harman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with UN Women about the abduction of schoolgirls from Chibok in north-eastern Nigeria on 14 April 2014; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Mark Simmonds
Since the abduction of the Nigerian school girls on 14 April, we have focused our efforts on working with the Nigerian Government to locate and secure the release of the girls. We have made no representations to UN Women about the case. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague) made a statement condemning the schoolgirls abduction on 16 April.
Asked by: Baroness Harman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to (a) the UN and (b) any UN agency on the abduction of schoolgirls from Chibok in north-eastern Nigeria on 14 April 2014.
Answered by Mark Simmonds
Since the abduction of the Nigerian school girls on 14 April, we have focused our efforts on working with the Nigerian government to locate and secure the release of the girls. We have discussed the issue with officials from counterpart members of the UN Security Council in New York. On 7 May, I spoke with UN Special Representatives (SR), Zainab Bangura (UN SR for Sexual Violence) and Leila Zeroughi (UN SR for Children and Armed Conflict), to discuss what more the UN can do to help.
Asked by: Baroness Harman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many schoolgirls were abducted in Chibok in north-eastern Nigeria on 14 April 2014; and what reports he has received on their current location.
Answered by Mark Simmonds
Approximately 230 schoolgirls were taken. A small number appear to have escaped or been released. There is no confirmation of the current location or condition of those still being held. Most reports suggest the girls were initially taken to the Sambisa forest, where insurgents are believed to have a number of camps. The girls may have now been split into several smaller groups.
Asked by: Baroness Harman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will discuss the abduction of schoolgirls in Chibok in north-eastern Nigeria on 14 April 2014 at the next European Union meeting of Foreign Ministers.
Answered by Mark Simmonds
We expect the next Foreign Affairs Council to focus on Ukraine. Nigeria is not currently on the agenda. Our High Commissioner in Abuja has discussed the abductions with his EU colleagues.
Asked by: Baroness Harman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when he last discussed with his Nigerian counterpart the recent abduction of schoolgirls in that country; and when he next intends to raise this issue.
Answered by Mark Simmonds
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague) spoke to Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs on 18 April about the case. The Foreign Secretary expressed the UK's sympathies about this outrageous crime and offered UK assistance to Nigerian efforts to recover the girls.
Officials at our High Commission in Abuja have met their Nigerian security and military counterparts regularly since the abductions and have repeated the Foreign Secretary's offer of assistance.