Blair's no torture, no ill treatment deals

Abu Qatada, known as al-Qaida's spiritual ambassador in Europe, was one of 10 international terror suspects detained in Full Sutton and Long Lartin maximum security prisons in August 2005 for deportation on "national security grounds".

Most had already been held without charge in Belmarsh prison for more than two years under the now unlawful emergency anti-terrorism legislation.

Tony Blair decided to pursue "no torture, no ill treatment" deals to deport the Belmarsh detainees in the aftermath of the July 2005 London bombings. Since then 30 Algerians, Libyans and Jordanians have been held pending deportation on the grounds of national security.

Successive ministers have tried to secure memorandums of understanding with several Middle Eastern and North African states, all with questionable human rights records.

Full deals have only been reached with Libya, Lebanon and Jordan, and in the last case the assurance of no death penalty against deportees from Britain is not in the agreement, only in a side letter. In the case of Algeria only diplomatic assurances have been given, but they have been upheld as legal by the special immigration appeals commission.

So far only seven of the 30 have been deported: six to Algeria and one to France. Another three Algerians have withdrawn their appeals but have not yet been removed.

The remaining 20 are still mounting challenges. Mr Blair recently appointed Lord Triesman as his special envoy to try to secure more deportation deals with Middle Eastern states.

Guardian Unlimited