Cuba is a long way from the UK, so perhaps you can be forgiven for not realising what has been going on around the other side of the world for the past 8 years. However you don’t have to go to Cuba to find terror suspects controversially imprisoned. A little closer to home, both foreign nationals and British Citizens are being held at HMP Belmarsh, Long Lartin and Woodhill for years without charge or trial. Welcome to Britain’s Guantanamo Bay. What is more worrying is that despite there being intense public pressure regarding Guantanamo, there has largely been indifference to prisoners held in the UK. “There aren’t pictures of the detainees at Belmarsh in fluorescent orange jump suits being led around in shackles… They are anonymous, faceless people,” says Liberty.

 

Most of us I assume have faith in our legal system. Surely the government would protect any one of us if we were imprisoned under false pretences? Indeed we would have a right to view the ‘evidence’ for our case? If a crime had been committed then at the very least I would face trial in this country? Is this not what constitutes justice? Allow me to introduce you to several shocking pieces of legislation.

 

The Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 (ATCSA)

The ATCSA was passed by Parliament as a result of the ‘public emergency’ in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. We had to be seen as doing rather than just talking. Under Part 4 of the Act, the Secretary of State can certify a non-UK national as a ‘suspected international terrorist’ using secret information that is never revealed to the person concerned. Detention of non-UK nationals can also be ordered without charge or trial. Consequently, people can and have effectively been charged with a criminal offence, convicted, and sentenced to imprisonment without even having been to trial.

 

“We do not take responsibility for other countries’ nationals, purely on the basis of residence in the UK.” UK Foreign Office Minister Valerie Amos (2007)

 

The UK Extradition Act 2003

Apparently we have no regard for non-UK nationals regardless of their length of residence in the UK. What about the ‘home-grown’ amongst us? The UK Extradition Act was fast-tracked into legislation in 2003 without formal consultative parliamentary process or debate. It permits the US to instantly seek the extradition of any British Citizen without providing prima facie evidence to support the extradition request. Incidentally, the UK is the only country in the EU to sign this treaty with the US. The rest of the EU requested they should also be allowed to extradite a US Citizen if wanted by an EU Country… The US refused. The US refuses to extradite its own citizens: this would be ‘in breach of their Constitutional Rights’. Britain has already approved the extradition of several British Citizens to the US without any apparent regard for our ‘constitutional rights’! Little did we realise that standing ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with our American colleagues would mean that our government would sell out on its own citizens. Somehow being American today offers greater protection and peace of mind that being British. Our UK passport now fails to protect us from being plucked from our homes and dragged to the US at the click of the Home Office Minister’s fingers. A proverbial slap in the face.

 

Why should British Citizens be inferior to French, German and US counterparts, all of whose governments protect them from such extradition arrangements?

 

The Terrorism Act 2006

This Act makes the ‘glorification’ of terrorism a criminal offence. Unfortunately, under the very broad proposals defining criminal activity, to support oppressed people’s right to fight against oppression and occupation may be regarded as ‘glorification’. Many people who support the internationally recognised right of self-defence for oppressed people in Palestine and Chechnya may be prosecuted for their beliefs. Under this law, to have supported Nelson Mandela in his struggle against apartheid would also have constituted as glorification of terrorism.

Where and how do we draw the line for freedom of speech? This Act does not really give us a choice; which ultimately places restrictions on our human rights – lest we be arrested for thinking anything different.

 

There are limitless stories of detainees held in the Guantanamo Bay of Cuba and Britain. Families long for the day when they will see their loved ones again: parents wait for sons, wives wait for husbands, children wait for fathers. As a society, the desire to empathise with one another has been muted. The use of these prisons to detain terror suspects without legal proceedings has made clear the government’s position on ‘Justice’. This itself should be a concern to everyone. Britain is traditionally associated with values of liberty and democracy however, the injustice offered by the immigration courts puts the Union Jack in a different light. It is time to take a stand and start to reclaim our rights. We need to increase awareness; decrease ignorance; voice opinions to MPs and make them listen. We must remove the blindfold that conceals the horrific and disgusting truth. We owe that much to the countless ‘ghost’ members of our communities. If not for them, for our sake at least.

 

Many thanks to Cageprisoners, Amnesty International and Liberty.