Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of religious freedom and tolerance in Eritrea.

We are concerned by reports on the lack of religious freedom and tolerance in Eritrea. We raise human rights with the Government of Eritrea regularly, including religious freedoms. The former Minister for Africa raised our concerns with the Eritrean President's senior adviser in July, as did our Ambassador in Asmara with the same advisor in August. At the 41st session of the OHCHR Human Rights Council on 24 June to 12 July the UK reiterated calls for Eritrea to respect freedom of religion or belief.