§ Mr. Donald Stewartasked the Lord Privy Seal if he will provide figures to show the number of refugees who have fled from El Salvador to neighbouring Central American countries and other countries since October 1979.
§ Mr. RidleyAccording to figures produced by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in April, there are 10,000 Salvadorean refugees in Costa Rica, 33,000 in Honduras, 70,000 in Mexico, 10,000 in Nicaragua and 1,000 Panama. There are currently about 1,500 refugees receiving relief in Belize.
We have no figures for countries outside Central America.
§ Mr. Donald Stewartasked the Lord Privy Seal if he will ensure that any arms supplied to Chile will not be re-exported to El Salvador.
§ Mr. RidleySince the ending of the embargo on the supply of arms to Chile in July last year, we have continued to monitor the sales of defence equipment with particular care. Whilst we only refuse export of equipment to Chile which in our judgment is likely to be used for internal repression, we are reasonably satisfied that other defence equipment is solely for Chile's own needs.
§ Mr. Donald Stewartasked the Lord Privy Sea whether he is now taking any steps to re-establish British consular representation in El Salvador.
§ Mr. RidleyOur ambassador in Costa Rica is accredited to El Salvador, where we have maintained an honorary consulate in the capital, San Salvador, since the closure of our embassy in February last year. We have no plans to change our present consular representation in El Salvador.