Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he made at his meeting on 3 March 2020 with his Turkish counterpart on reports of people who disappeared after Turkey's invasion of Cyprus.

On 3 March 2020, the Foreign Secretary met with President Erdogan and Foreign Minister Cavusoglu. They discussed a wide range of bilateral and regional issues.

The UK shares the concerns of both the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities over the missing persons following the events of 1974, which understandably remains a very sensitive issue. We commend the important work being undertaken by the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP), and the contribution it makes to bringing closure for the many families affected. We facilitate the CMP including by enabling it to work from a British-owned site in the Buffer Zone at minimal cost. In June 2019, the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus was granted access by Turkey to 30 additional military areas in the north of the island that could contain burial sites. Nonetheless, there is certainly still further progress to be made.