If he will visit Yemen within the next six months to discuss relations with the UK and regional issues.

Foreign engagements for my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary and other Ministers are kept under constant review. We do not announce visits until they have been confirmed, and final decisions on overseas visits are often not possible until shortly before the day of travel. Last month, however, I paid my third visit to Yemen. It included a visit to Aden, which I know is a place close to my right hon. Friend's heart.

I welcome the fact that the Minister went to Aden, the city of my birth, and acknowledge the fact that he returned from his visit. No one fired any shots at him, no one directed any bombs at him; he came back safely. So why does the Foreign Office continue to pursue a travel advice policy that prevents business persons and tourists from going to Yemen? Surely the best way in which to ensure good relations with the country is for us to allow our people to engage with the people of Yemen.

My right hon. Friend will know as well as I do that civil unrest in Yemen is growing. There are grievances throughout the country. Al-Houthi-led rebels in the north have been exploding bombs, and indeed exploded bombs while I was there, although luckily out of my earshot for a change. There is also a great deal of disquiet in the south, even around Aden. As my right hon. Friend will know, people in the south feel that they are not receiving the investment that they should be receiving for their industries and infrastructure.

There is a great feeling of unease. Tourists have been kidnapped, and although they have not been British tourists—thank goodness—I am not sure that I would like to ease that travel advice and then find that as a consequence someone caught up in a bomb outrage had been killed or maimed, or someone had been kidnapped or shot. I am sorry to say that, because Yemen is a very beautiful country which ought to be prospering as a result of tourism.

When the Minister next meets the Yemeni authorities and those of neighbouring countries, will he raise the concern that is felt about the increasing piracy off the coast of the horn of Africa around Somalia and Yemen and the effect that that is having on international shipping?

Yes. It is an extremely serious problem. The hon. Gentleman will be glad to know that the British Navy and the British coastguard service have been co-operating closely with the Yemeni—

The Royal Navy.

I am sorry: the Royal Navy. [Interruption.] No, not the Welsh navy. The Royal Navy has been co-operating very closely with the Yemenis on this. The authorities in Somaliland and Djibouti, which are also exercised about the problem, are now beginning to co-operate with Yemen to try to eradicate it, but it does not just involve piracy. There is an enormous amount of people trafficking, and an enormous number of people are drowning as they try to make the crossing from the horn of Africa to the Saudi peninsula.

As my hon. Friend knows, the Yemeni constitution guarantees freedom of expression, but in reality that is not the case. Will he take up the case of Yemeni journalist Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani, who was sentenced to six years of imprisonment on 9 June? Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience, as he has been convicted and sentenced solely because of something he wrote. Last week, he received an Amnesty award, among its annual awards, for his work, and I ask the Minister to take up his case and ask for his release.

I would be only too glad to take up this case.