Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what information his Department holds on the number of UK citizens who have been refused entry and deported by the Israeli Government as a direct result of amendment 27 of the Entry into Israel Law during the last 12 months.
Answered by Alistair Burt
In the last 12 months the British Embassy in Tel Aviv provided consular assistance to 25 British Nationals at the Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport detention facility.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK citizens have complained of poor treatment by Israeli authorities at border crossings and entry points; and of those people how many have raised such issues with the (a) Government, (b) embassy in Tel Aviv and (c) consulates in Jerusalem and Ramallah in the last 12 months.
Answered by Alistair Burt
In the last 12 months 13 British Nationals raised concerns with the British Embassy about poor treatment, questioning and delays at border crossings. All complaints are noted by the British Embassy in Tel Aviv. There is no British Consulate in Ramallah.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK citizens have been (a) detained and (b) delayed when entering Israel in the last 12 months.
Answered by Alistair Burt
We do not hold such information. This would be for the Israeli authorities themselves to respond.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK citizens have been deported by Israel for reasons related to pro-Palestinian activity after initially being granted entry to Israel in the last 12 months.
Answered by Alistair Burt
We do not hold such information. This would be for the Israeli authorities themselves to respond.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK citizens have been detained, interrogated and subsequently denied entry to Israel in the last 12 months.
Answered by Alistair Burt
We do not hold such information. This would be for the Israeli authorities themselves to respond.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies introduce public registers of beneficial ownership; and whether he will set a timetable for their introduction.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The UK Government works closely with the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies on tax and transparency issues. Our priority is the implementation of the new bilateral arrangements concluded with them in 2016, which are due to come into effect by June this year. Under these arrangements, Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories with a financial centre have committed to establish, where they have not already done so, central registers of beneficial ownership information or similarly effective systems, and to give UK law enforcement and tax authorities near real-time access to beneficial ownership information on corporate and legal entities incorporated in their jurisdictions. Nevertheless, it remains the Government’s ambition for public registers to become the global standard. If this happens, we would expect the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies to follow suit.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure that human rights are being upheld in Ethiopia.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
We remain deeply concerned by the violence which has occurred in the Oromia and Amhara regions of Ethiopia throughout 2016 including the high number of deaths.
We have made clear to the Government of Ethiopia, including at ministerial level, our concerns about the handling of these protests. We have reiterated our strong support for the constitutional right of all Ethiopian citizens to gather peacefully and express their opinions. We also supported the EU's statement of 10 August expressing concern and condolences to those affected, and their statement on the current state of emergency.
At the Ethiopian state opening on Parliament on Monday 10 October, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, announced proposals which Ethiopia hope will address some of the underlying grievances of the wider population.
We continue to raise our concerns with the Government of Ethiopia both through our bilateral engagement, as well as jointly with our international partners.