UK Considers Envoy For Britons Held Abroad

Britain is preparing to emulate the United States by appointing an envoy tasked with freeing citizens arbitrarily detained abroad, as it faces calls to do more to bring them home.

High-profile cases like jailed Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and imprisoned Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai have spotlighted the plight of Britons held in jails overseas.

The UK foreign ministry insists it continues to press such cases with governments, but relatives of detainees and human rights organisations complain of a lack of urgency and transparency.

“The government is committed to strengthening support for British nationals, including through the appointment of a new envoy,” a Foreign Office spokesperson told AFP.

Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer has said an “Envoy for Complex Consular Detentions” is expected to be appointed “before the summer”.

The government has not specified the terms of the role but it could be similar to America’s Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, a position created in 2015.

Unlike the United States though, Britain does not take part in prisoner exchanges.

Professor Carla Ferstman, an expert on arbitrary detentions at the Human Rights Centre at Essex Law School, said appointing someone would be the “clearest thing that the UK can do that it hasn’t done yet”.

“When you have someone at the highest level they command a certain level of respect,” she told AFP.

Abdel Fattah was arrested in September 2019 and sentenced to five years in prison on charges of “spreading false news” after sharing a Facebook post about police brutality.

He is still imprisoned despite a hunger strike by his mother and Britain’s foreign ministry saying it is pushing for his release “at the highest levels of the Egyptian government”.

His sister Sanaa Seif said an envoy would mean “a proper continued focus on” freeing detainees.

“It’s also important to have a focal point that can help coordinate between different government bodies so that they all work in synchronisation,” she told AFP.

Seif believes the government should consider revising travel advice to Egypt too, a call also made by lawmakers who have suggested the government should sanction Egyptian officials as well.

“Is it not clear that words are no longer sufficient?” Conservative peer Guy Black asked in parliament’s House of Lords recently.

Ferstman said tightening travel guidance can be a powerful tool.

“It’s a big deal because all of a sudden tourists can’t get insurance and it’s harder for business travel to happen. There’s all kinds of implications,” she explained.

Amnesty International recently called for the government to develop a “clear strategy” to support arbitrarily detained Britons, including by demanding that UK officials attend trials.

The Labour government pledged in its general election-winning manifesto last year that it would introduce “a new right to consular assistance in cases of human rights violations”.

Amnesty also wants the government to call for a person’s “immediate release”, including publicly when it is requested by the family.

It said London took three years to publicly call for Lai to be freed, something his son Sebastian said “sends the wrong message” to “autocratic states”.

“The quicker we have the government speak out post-arrest, that’s the window of opportunity to have people released,” Eilidh Macpherson, Amnesty’s campaigns manager for individuals at risk told AFP.

UK officials say the government can be wary of accusations it is interfering in another country’s judicial system.

“Sometimes it may need to be quiet about what it’s doing, but this shouldn’t come at the expense of transparency,” said Ferstman.

Jagtar Singh Johal, a Sikh blogger from Scotland, was arrested in India in November 2017 while there for his wedding on accusations of being part of a terror plot against right-wing Hindu leaders.

He has not been convicted of a crime and in March was cleared in one of the nine charges against him.

The foreign ministry spokesperson said Foreign Secretary David Lammy “continues to raise concerns” about the detention with India’s government “at every appropriate opportunity”.

But his brother, Gurpreet Singh Johal complains of being kept in the dark.

“We don’t know what’s actually being said,” he told AFP.

Gurpreet said an envoy would be a “good thing” but until the position is in place, “We won’t know exactly what it means.”