Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of reports of the harassment and intimidation of Tatars in Russian-occupied Crimea in the run-up to the recent presidential election.

The UK is deeply concerned about the ongoing human rights abuses taking place in Crimea, particularly against ethnic and religious minorities such as the Crimean Tatars. This has included widespread harassment; arbitrary detentions; threats to rights of worship, expression and assembly, and the banning of the Tatar Mejlis Council. The UK did not recognise the legitimacy of recent elections to the Russian Federation held in Crimea, as part of our broader policy against recognising Russia's illegal annexation of the peninsula; reports of pressure exerted on the Tatars and other groups to vote are very worrying. I recently met members of the Tatar leadership as part of our ongoing engagement with Crimean Tatar groups and human rights organisations reporting on the situation on the peninsula.