A special envoy for hostages would be appointed if Labour wins power, shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced on Friday telling British citizens seized abroad: “You are not forgotten.”
The move was immediately backed by London mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe who was arbitrarily detained for almost six years in Iran on trumped up spying charges.
In an interview with The Evening Standard, Mr Lammy stressed there needed to be a “step change in our approach” to dealing with hostage situations as “sadly there are now countries that are, frankly making arbitrary detention part of their foreign policy arsenal”.
Having a Special Envoy for Arbitrary Detention would tell British citizens, some dual nationals, languishing in jail in Iran and other countries with flawed judicial systems, that: “You’re not forgotten.
“It’s important that those individuals that find themselves in those very, very difficult circumstances know that there’s someone there for them.”
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe went through an appalling ordeal, including being held in Tehran’s notorious Evin jail, and her husband Richard fought tirelessly for her release, going on hunger strike outside the Foreign Office to highlight her plight.
She said: “No British family in the 21st century should have to go on hunger strike in front of the Foreign Secretary in order to get the UK government to protect its citizens from torture and unfair imprisonment.
“A special envoy has been really successful in the US, and would be great in the UK.
“It gives families someone to turn to in extreme need who has power to bring together the different parts of government needed to solve these cases and stop injustices being deflected.”
She is due to speak at Labour’s annual rally in Liverpool, which starts at the weekend, and where the cases of other British citizens held abroad will be highlighted including Alaa Abd el-Fattah in Egypt, Mehran Raoof in Iran, Jagtar Singh Johal in India, Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong and Vladimir Kara-Murza in Russia.
The British hostage special envoy, who would offer a “centre of expertise in a very challenging environment”, would be aiming to replicate the success of the US Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Roger Carstens, who has been credited with increasing the number of unfairly detained American citizens being released since his appointment in 2020.
A new legal right for consular assistance would also be created.
Mr Lammy stressed: “It’s clear that we have had a number of families, the most high profile of which was Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe feeling that ministers had forgotten about them, made mistakes, not kept them informed or engaged, sometimes issues have pertained to more than just one Whitehall department.
“Therefore, I think that there is a need to have an envoy that can provide a point of contact for families and ensure that there is work going on that is dedicated to their specific needs, that can empower and engage with foreign governments and co-ordinate across government, that further elevates these cases and demonstrably creates a centre of expertise in a very challenging environment in which sadly there are now countries that are, frankly making arbitrary detention part of their foreign policy arsenal and the world is increasingly dangerous in many ways.
“There does need to be a step change in our approach.”
He stressed the new system would aim to avoid mistakes such as made by Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary in 2017 when he erroneously suggested that at most Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been teaching people journalism before her arrest in April 2016 on spying charges while visiting her parents in Iran, with her then two-year-old daughter Gabriella, words which were seized on by the Iranian regime.
She was released in March last year after the UK government paid a £400 million debt to Iran dating back to the 1970s, although both governments have said the two issues should not be linked.
The Foreign Office often advises families with loved ones seized abroad to avoid publicity, arguing that going public can make freeing them more difficult.
Mr Lammy added: “Families often resort to publicity because they felt so frustrated, and they felt that it’s only with that publicity that their case got any attention. And that’s precisely why I think, whether that is advantageous to them or causes problems, that’s precisely why they need a dedicated envoy, but they also need this new legal right to assistance that they know is not just there as a matter of ministerial discretion. Is a right that’s there in law.”
