UK police earned millions training officers in repressive regimes

Lucas Amin

Government accused of putting trade deals before human rights as documents reveal countries with the death penalty were clients of Home Office body.

British police earned millions of pounds by training officers in repressive regimes in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia. The College of Policing, an arms-length body of the Home Office, has earned more than £3.3m by providing “international leadership” and “international strategic leadership” training to police forces in 23 countries since it was set up by Theresa May in 2012.

It is UK government policy to oppose the death penalty in all circumstances. However, documents obtained by the Guardian under a freedom of information request show that 89% of the money earned by the college came from countries where the death penalty still exists.

Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, accused the government of putting trade deals before human rights. She said: “It is yet another example that when trade deals and security alliances are on offer in the Middle East and elsewhere around the world, Theresa May’s government throws any concern for human rights out the window.”

Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry is the college’s biggest leadership training client and has paid it more than £1.2m for 815 days’ training over the past six years. The same ministry has executed at least 641 people since 2012, according to Reprieve, a charity that campaigns against the death penalty.

The governments of Bahrain, UAE, Oman and Kuwait, four countries where the death penalty remains legal, together provided another £1.3m of the college’s revenue. The college earned £800,000 from 18 other countries. These included Indonesia, Singapore and Botswana, which all executed prisoners in 2016.

The College of Policing has made more than £2.5m by training forces from five countries that use the death penalty

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Guardian

The Home Office says British training is designed to improve human rights compliance but campaigners say there is a lack of evidence to prove this claim. While Saudi officials were receiving British training, the number of prisoners executed rose from at least 79 in 2012 to at least 154 in 2016.

Maya Foa, director of Reprieve, said: “The College of Policing appears to have made a substantial profit from a massive crackdown on dissent in the Gulf since the Arab spring. Ministers say this training will improve Gulf policing but, in reality, things have got worse as UK-trained bodies in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have increased their use of torture and the death penalty for juveniles and protesters.” The home affairs committee found last year that the college “has been put under pressure by the Home Office to raise revenue” by providing overseas training. The committee raised concern that the “provision of training on the basis of opaque agreements, sometimes with foreign governments which have been the subject of sustained criticism, threatens the integrity of the very brand of British policing that the college is trying to promote. It simply smacks of hypocrisy.”

After this criticism, the Home Office conducted an internal audit of the college that assessed its reputation management. The audit, also obtained by the Guardian in a freedom of information request, states that “the college takes appropriate steps to manage its reputation in terms of the international work it takes on”.

Reprieve said MPs should conduct an inquiry to establish the full details of the “secretive” College of Policing. Foa said: “The UK government continues to shroud this assistance in secrecy, refusing to disclose the human rights risk assessments it conducts for these projects. Now is the time for MPs to mount a full inquiry into this secretive overseas assistance.”

The Home Office said: “We cannot stand by and criticise countries from the sidelines if we want to see wholesale changes. The government’s policing programmes in the Middle East, led by the College of Policing, are specifically designed to improve the justice system by improving human rights compliance and reducing the likelihood of miscarriages of justice.”

A College of Policing spokesman said: “Before we undertake any international work, we refer to the International Policing Assistance Board (IPAB), which assesses all requests against British values and in the context of maintaining UK security. The IPAB comprises policing representatives and those of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Home Office, Ministry of Defence and the Department for International Development.

“The college publishes details on its website of the countries where international assistance is provided, the overall amount of money received and a list of the areas where the college assists including developing senior women and counter-terrorism. Respect for human rights and dignity is interwoven into programmes.”