Patrick Grady – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Patrick Grady on 2016-06-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will issue a response to Early Day Motion 116, Slavery in Mauritania.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We welcome the release of anti-slavery activists Biram Dah Abeid and Brahim Bilal Ramdhane following the decision of the Mauritanian Supreme Court. We also welcome the decision by the newly formed anti-slavery court to convict two men on charges of slavery.

We continue to encourage the Mauritanian government to support the anti-slavery courts in prosecuting cases in full under the 2015 anti-slavery law and to take steps to facilitate the collection of data on slavery to support eradication efforts.