By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

In a report released on Monday April 12, London-based Amnesty International has documented and criticized the “no-torture” assurance policies of several European countries, and called for the European Union to prohibit member countries from continuing the practice.

Several European countries, including the United Kingdom, require assurances from countries that they will not torture individuals that are deported.

The assurances are used by the deporting European countries to assuage domestic and international concerns over sending individuals to countries that often have egregious human rights records.

The problem with these well-intentioned deals, according to the Amnesty report, is that they do nothing to guarantee compliance. Amnesty described the assurances as both “unenforceable” and “unreliable”, and characterized the practice used in at least half a dozen European countries as a “failed experiment”.

Moreover, Amnesty claims that governments are merely using the practice “to rid themselves of” alleged terrorists in lieu of prosecuting these individuals in domestic courts or releasing them.

The United Kingdom, in particular, was condemned by Amnesty, since the UK uses this method frequently to deport any individual deemed to be a “substantial threat” to national security.

In addition to the general assurance policy required for individual deportaitons, the UK has more formal “memorandums of understanding” with Ethiopia, Jordan, Lebanon, and Libya. These memorandums of understanding preclude individualized assurances for each separate deportee.

The UK responded vociferously to the report. In particular, officials claimed that no deportees were sent to any country where there was a “significant risk of torture”.

Denmark, Germany, France, and Italy also have used and continue to use “no-torture” assurance policies and were implicated in the report.

The report is available online at Amnesty’s website.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Amnesty International criticise government on torture – 12 April 2010

INDEPENDENT – Diplomatic deals expose deportees to torture risk – 12 April 2010

JURIST – Amnesty condemns use of ‘no-torture’ deals in European deportations – 12 April 2010