Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what account his Department took of the case of Andargachew Tsege in its decision to fund the executive MSc programme in security sector management in Ethiopia.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

​In line with standard government policy, we conducted an Overseas Security and Justice Assessment before funding for the executive MSc programme in security sector management was approved. The consular case of Mr Andargachew Tsege was not a factor in the process. The programme focuses on building an understanding of the rule of law, human rights and international humanitarian law, and the assessment evaluated the programme to be supporting the reduction of human rights violations. The Government takes the detention and welfare of Mr Andargachew Tsege very seriously and continues to raise his case with the Ethiopian government at the highest levels.