Guantanamo releases call welcomed

Foreign Secretary David Miliband has written to US secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking that the men be freed from the US detention centre in Cuba.

The men - Shaker Aamer, a London resident originally from Saudi Arabia; Jamil El Banna, whose family live in Dollis Hill, north west London and who was a refugee from Jordan; Omar Deghayes, who lived in Brighton and was a refugee from Libya; Binyam Mohamed, who lived in Kensington, west London, and had applied for asylum from Ethiopia; and Abdennour Sameur, a refugee from Algeria who lived in Bournemouth - are not British nationals but were legally resident in the UK before they were detained, the Foreign Office said.

The move represents a change from the Government's previous position of maintaining they were not obliged to seek the release of Guantanamo inmates who were British residents but did not hold British citizenship.

The lawyer representing the men, who have all been held for over five years, hailed the move as a "huge step in the right direction" and said pursuing an ethical foreign policy would help protect the UK against terrorism.

Clive Stafford Smith, legal director for campaign group Reprieve, who has represented all five men, said: "At last we are seeing an ethical foreign policy, action rather than words. Respect for human rights and justice are our first and best protection against terrorism."

The US ambassador to London, Robert Tuttle, said the request to release the detainees would be considered very seriously.

By January 2005 the Government had secured the release and return of all UK nationals detained at the centre but had not sought the release of this group of men. All the men, some of whom had lived and worked in Britain for decades, had been granted refugee status, indefinite leave or exceptional leave to remain before they were detained.

In a statement the Foreign Office said it had reviewed its approach in the light of its aim to see the closure of the detention centre and recent steps taken by the US government to reduce the numbers of detainees being held there. However it cautioned that the release and return of the men may take some time.

Civil liberties groups welcomed the Government's change of tack. James Welch, legal director for campaign group Liberty said: "This change of policy is extremely welcome, especially if it signals a bigger change of approach on both sides of the Atlantic."