Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what estimate he has made of changes in the level of outward migration from Eritrea since the recent rapprochement with Ethiopia.

Whilst there are no official or verifiable figures available, there were various reports of a large increase in outward migration from Eritrea to Ethiopia in the weeks following the re-opening of the border. We assess that those reports are credible, but that numbers have now fallen.