Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband has criticised ministers for “refusing” to take the issue of state hostage-taking seriously after the Foreign Office rejected recommendations designed to improve the Government’s response.
The Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC), in its April report Stolen Years: Combatting State Hostage Diplomacy, condemned the Government’s handling of cases such as Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s and that of British-Iranian dual national Anoosheh Ashoori.
The cross-party panel of MPs suggested ministers create the post of director for arbitrary and complex detentions to aid its handling of international arrests of British nationals abroad.
It also called for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to establish a media engagement plan with families from the early stages of a detention.
It beggars belief that after everything Nazanin went through and the detailed work of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Government is still refusing to take the issue seriously— Richard Ratcliffe
But the Commons committee said ministers had rejected the post recommendation and “did not clarify” its position on better media engagement.
It comes after Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a dual British-Iranian national, was detained in Iran for six years after being accused of crimes against Tehran’s government in 2016.
In a joint response from husband Richard Ratcliffe and her local MP Tulip Siddiq, the pair said elements of the Foreign Office’s response to the report was “utterly confounding and insulting”.
Mr Ratcliffe and Labour’s Ms Siddiq said: “The FAC report confirmed what we knew all along — that ministers suppressed state hostage cases and caused victims like Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe needless suffering.
“The Government’s response denies the basic facts of the issue and is incredibly disappointing.
“It beggars belief that after everything Nazanin went through and the detailed work of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Government is still refusing to take the issue seriously.
“Their refusal to engage with the fact that Nazanin’s release was clearly linked to the payment of the IMS (International Military Services) debt — which took place at the same time — is utterly confounding and insulting.
“How can we possibly learn lessons for the future if ministers can’t recognise and accept what has been happening until now, even when the evidence is plainly in front of them?
“We urge the Government to think again about their response to this important report and take a look in the mirror at how their own behaviour has exacerbated the risk to UK citizens.”
Alicia Kearns, the Conservative chairwoman of the committee, told Foreign Secretary James Cleverly in a letter that his department’s response was “disappointing” and “defensive”.
Ms Kearns, in a statement published on Thursday, said: “In our report Stolen Years: Combatting State Hostage Diplomacy, we called out the poor communication and generic, standardised responses issued to the families with loved ones in arbitrary detention.
“Unfortunately, the Government’s response to our inquiry follows the same disappointing pattern.”
She said she hoped the Government’s “engagement significantly improves” and that ministers recognise that the committee’s “recommendations are based on the evidence and experiences of detainees and their families”.
The Foreign Office, in its response to the MPs’ report, said ministers and senior officials engage with families of those captured abroad at different stages of the case.
It said the department also “seeks to give families continuity with a named case officer”.
The department told the committee: “The Government does not agree that we should establish a separate post of director for arbitrary and complex detentions.
“Our approach reflects the Foreign Secretary’s primacy within Cabinet as the sSecretary of state responsible for foreign affairs, including consular affairs, with direct access to the Prime Minister.”
The Government’s response also said that “ministerial churn made no impact on the pace of resolution” of state hostage-taking cases.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe questioned, upon her return to the UK, why it took five foreign secretaries more than six years to bring her home, with Liz Truss heading up the Foreign Office at the time of her release in 2022.
