Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the wellbeing of political detainees in Syrian prisons.
The UK has repeatedly condemned the illegal detention, torture and execution of detainees by the Assad regime, affiliated militias and proscribed terrorist organisations. We support the UN's call to the Assad regime and Syrian armed groups to release a sufficient number of detainees to prevent COVID-19 spreading in detention facilities, as well as their urgent request to allow humanitarian actors and medical teams unhindered access to prisons. The UK has raised the plight of detainees at the UN Security Council and at the UN Human Rights Council, which have included language on detainees in recent Syria Resolutions.