Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to his counterpart in Eritrea on the persecution of members of Christian denominations banned by the Government of that country.

I raised the UK's concerns on the human rights situation in Eritrea directly with the Eritrean Foreign Minister when we met in September, as well as our hope that positive developments in the region will lead to improvements in human rights in Eritrea. We are concerned by the detention of individuals and groups from proscribed religious groups, and senior individuals from religious organisations.