Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Indian counterpart on the case of six British ex-servicemen detained in India; what steps his Department is taking to provide diplomatic and consular assistance to those people; and what information his Department has received from Indian officials about the reason for the detainment of those men.

Mr Hugo Swire

The six men remain in India due to an ongoing Indian legal process on their case. Ministers have raised this case at the highest levels nearly thirty times since the men were first detained in November 2013. Most recently, the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), raised it for the third time with Prime Minister Modi, during his visit to the UK in November. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), raised the case with the Indian Minister of External Affairs at the UN General Assembly on 29 September and I raised it again on 24 November with the Indian High Commissioner to London.

Consular staff in Chennai continue to provide consular support to the men, but we cannot interfere in the ongoing Indian legal process. We are working with them to assess their needs and will continue to identify organisations who can help them and their families.