Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to (a) the Russian Ambassador in London and (b) his Russian counterpart on actions taken against Crimean Tatars in Russian-occupied Crimea.

We are deeply concerned by ongoing reports of human rights abuses against the Crimean Tatar community. The Foreign Secretary has not made direct representations to the Russian Ambassador in London but has publicly condemned Russian human rights abuses in Crimea. Most recently, he co-signed an op-ed with EU partners on 27 February in which he criticised Russia's treatment of the Tatar community, and, in a statement to mark the fifth anniversary of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea, condemned Russia's continued pattern of human rights violations in the peninsula and called for the release of all Ukrainian political prisoners being held by Russia. The UK supports the work of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, which works to reduce violations by strengthening the field presence of human rights monitors and reporting on the situation. In coordination with international partners, we continue to raise our concerns in international fora, including the UN, OSCE and NATO.