Freedom House residents have been raised in Parliament at least six times since 2018, and the government regularly responds that it is aware of the issue and has raised it with Bahraini officials.23 In February 2019, a member of Parliament questioned the government about coercion by proxy against Sayed Alwadaei, the London-based director of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy. In response, the Minister for the Middle East shared his positive experience meeting with Bahrain’s independent monitoring committee and urged “people to go through that independent process because we are confident that it is genuinely independent and it is making a difference to the administration.” 24 UK officials have raised issues of transnational repression in bilateral relationships. The following month, after Alwadaei’s case was raised again, the government responded that “Bahrain remains a key regional partner for the UK,” illustrating the way other diplomatic considerations can supersede or erode real accountability for Bahraini targeting of exiles in the UK. freedomhouse.org 5