Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he or officials in his Department have had with the Indonesian authorities on securing greater access to Papua for journalists and non-governmental organisations.

We continue to follow the situation in the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua closely. We remain concerned about reports of violence and human rights abuses, and our Embassy officials regularly visit the provinces to meet government officials, civil society leaders, and human rights defenders. We actively raise concerns with the Indonesian authorities regarding freedom of expression and restrictions on access to the region by international non-governmental organisations, diplomats and foreign journalists; most recently, the British Acting Ambassador in Jakarta met the Director General of Human Rights of the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights on 16 September.