Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of people seeking to leave Eritrea; and what steps the Khartoum Process is taking to reduce this.

There are no reliable figures for the number of people leaving Eritrea.

The UK plays a leading role in the Khartoum Process. It is a member of the steering committee, and has ensured the €46 million Better Migration Management (BMM) programme, which supports the Process, includes projects to improve the capacity of governments in the region to manage their borders, alongside the protection and support of migrants. The UK has offered its support to the Eritrean Government's Chairmanship of the Khartoum Process in 2019, drawing on our own experience as chair in 2016.