Human rights groups urge UK to accept foreign Guatanamo inmates

Friday, 23 January 2009 7:06 PM

By politics.co.uk staff

An alliance of human rights organisations has called on Britain to offer humanitarian protection to the detainees being sent home from, regardless of their nationality.

Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, which is leading the coalition, said: "This week we've already seen huge strides being taken by the new US president to dismantle the travesty of justice embodied by Guantanamo and now is the time for other governments to move on this as well."

The coalition's calls follow president Obama's decision to close the prison, in the first executive order of his presidency.

"European governments have been talking publicly about the possibility of their countries taking Guantanamo prisoners who need a place of safe resettlement and it's time for the UK to break its silence on this," Ms Allen said.

"The question of where to safely resettle at risk Guantanamo prisoners is already causing massive delay and unnecessary suffering to prisoners who should have been freed months or years ago."

Among the organisations supporting Amnesty International are the Centre for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch and Reprieve.

"Offering safe haven to some of the most vulnerable detainees would be a significant humanitarian gesture," said Human Rights Watch's senior counterterrorism counsel Julia Hall.

"Europe could help the new administration shut down the unlawful detention facility, a major goal, and be a force in re-establishing the rule of law."

But Britain is unlikely to resettle detainees, who may face torture and further imprisonment should they be returned home.

The status of the near 250 detainees still at the camp remains the biggest obstacle to the camp's closure.

European Union foreign ministers are working next week to discuss the situation, but a source told inthenews.co.uk that the UK, which has taken 13 detainees from Guantanamo - more than any other western country - was not intending to offer sanctuary to any other inmates.

"The discussions next week will look at how the European Union will respond to President Obama's decision to call for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, which we will obviously welcome," a UK diplomat said.

"We want to establish a common EU position over the status of detainees that aren't nationals to EU states."

Last week the Portuguese foreign minister wrote an open letter to EU member states by urging them to take in detainees, insisting it would help towards the closure of Guantanamo.

But a diplomatic source told inthenews.co.uk: "The EU will welcome [President]Obama's decision and will help him with that... but the UK doesn't have any plans to take in non-British detainees."

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it welcomed Mr Obama's executive order and insisted it had been "vociferously" calling for the closure of Guantanamo for years.

Yesterday Mr Obama said he was sending a message to the world that America would continue to fight terrorism but "in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals".

"The American people understand that we are not, as I said in the inauguration, going to continue with a false choice between our safety and our ideals," he said in the Oval Office.

"It is precisely our ideals that give us the strength and the moral high ground to effectively deal with the unthinking violence that we see emanating from terrorist organisations around the world.

"We intend to win this fight and win this on our terms."

Amnesty welcomed the move, with its secretary general Irene Khan calling it a "a major step forward".

"By prioritising the closure of Guantánamo in his first 48 hours in office, president Obama is sending an important message to the rest of the world that the USA is now closing a dark chapter in its history," Ms Khan said.

Reprieve were similarly pleased. "This is a dramatic, and welcome, break from the past seven years," said Reprieve lawyer Cori Crider.

"Reprieve has long said Guantánamo was just the tip of the iceberg, and we are hopeful that President Obama will dismantle the rest of these illegal facilities and prevent rendition to torture."

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