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Besieged in Britain

The effects of the war on terror in restricting civil liberties have been widely documented; its exacerbation of Islamophobia less so. But one shocking development has remained invisible — the rounding up, imprisonment and indefinite house arrest of a number of Muslim men resident in the UK, in a situation analogous to Guantánamo. Held for years without charge, under restricted regimes of twelve to twenty-four hour curfews, with virtually no access to the wider world and kept in ignorance of the alleged evidence against them, the impact on them and their families has been devastating. Many had come to Britain as refugees seeking a safe haven; some have been driven into madness, some have attempted suicide, some have left their families and returned voluntarily to regimes where they may face imprisonment and torture. The mental and physical health impacts on the men and their families, of an inhumanity that beggars belief, masked under the bureaucracy of 'control orders', 'SIAC deportation bail' and torturous legal processes, is here unveiled.

Key Words: Belmarsh • control orders • deportation bail • Guantánamo • Islamophobia • SIAC • war on terror

References

• Most came to the UK as refugees, or married refugees already in the UK. Some details from other families and individuals in similar situations - some Guantanamo Bay families, and some where the father is fighting extradition to the US - are also included. In most cases the identities are disguised to safeguard their privacy. All have been visited and/or interviewed by me repeatedly over periods of between one and six years.
• Steve Coll, Ghost Wars (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 2004); Jason Burke, Al-Qaeda (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 2003).
• Youcef Bedjaoui, Abbas Aroua and Meziane Ait-Larbi (eds), An Inquiry into the Algerian Massacres (Geneva, Hoggar, 1999, <www.hoggarbooks.org&gt;); Hichem Aboud, La Mafia des Generaux (Paris, JC Lattes, 2002 <www.editions-jclattes.fr&gt;); Amnesty International, `Civilian population caught in a spiral of violence', AI Index MDE 28/23/67, November 1997,1.
• Judgement of the Honourable Mr Justice Field in the High Court, 30 July 2004.
• Gareth Peirce, `The war on British Muslims', London Review of Books (Vol. 30, no. 7, 10 April 2008).
• Confidential medical report by team of psychiatrists for lawyers.
• <http://www.gcmhp.org/&gt;.
• Interview, London (17 August 2008).
• Multiple interviews, 2007/2008.
• According to Home Office Minister Tony McNulty's statement to parliament, in June 2008 fifteen control orders were in force, three of which are on British citizens. Under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, the secretary of state is required to report to parliament every three months on the exercise of control orders during that period.
• <www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics-news/2008/02/19/call-to-limit-anti-terror-control-orders-&gt;.
• It is relevant that in the 2007 case of two Libyans detained for deportation, Mr DD and Mr AS, SIAC found it unsafe to deport them because of the practice of torture in Libya. The secretary of state appealed that decision to the Court of Appeal, which agreed with SIAC. The secretary of state then dropped all intention of deporting Libyans, and some of the men were freed, while others were put on control orders of varying degrees of strictness. Their situation parallels Mahmoud's.
• Peirce, op. cit
• `Detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay', Statement of Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Rhuhel Ahmed, July 2004; Michael Winterbottom director, The Road to Guantanamo (Channel 4, 2006).
• Jane Mayer, `Junior', <http://www.newyorker.com/archive&gt;.
• Ibid.
• Telephone call, 2 August 2008.
• Victoria Brittain, `The ones left behind', Guardian Weekend (19 February 2005).
• Moazzam Begg and Victoria Brittain, Enemy Combatant (New York, Simon and Schuster 2006); Joseph Margulies, Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power (New York, Simon and Schuster, 2006).
• <http://law.shu.edu/news/guantanamo_reports.htm&gt;.
• `Detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay', op. cit.
• Lord Johan Steyn, `Guantánamo Bay: the legal black hole', International and Comparative Law Quarterly (Vol. 53, no. 1, 2004).
• <http://ccrjustice.org/&gt;.
• Peirce, op. cit.
• Victoria Brittain, `A shocking welcome' (20 December 2007); `Spanish practices' (6 March 2008), <http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/victoriabrittain&gt;.

Race & Class, Vol. 50, No. 3, 1-29 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0306396808100151


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Brittain, V. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?