Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he has taken to ensure that the Regional Operations Centre in Khartoum has adequate security to prevent the names and addresses of refugees and internally displaced peoples being accessed by agencies of the Government of Sudan.

The UK supports the Regional Operation Centre of Khartoum (ROCK) as part of joint efforts to tackle organised immigration crime in the region. The ROCK is implemented by Civipol and funded by the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, to which the UK contributes.

Our officials at the British Embassy in Khartoum are working closely with the EU Delegation to ensure risks are acknowledged and mitigated to the fullest extent in the design and implementation of the ROCK project. Additional technical assistance is provided through the UK's Conflict, Stability and Security Fund. We have also provided a Migration Adviser to add further UK support to the French-led consortium who are pushing forward the logistics for setting up the ROCK.