British nationals in detention or prison overseas

If a relative or friend has been detained or held in prison overseas, this is the support we can give.

If your relative or friend has asked us to, we will tell you as soon as we can, that they have been detained or held in prison. However, to protect their confidentiality, we will not provide any details of the detention or arrest, or tell you how to contact them, unless they have given us permission.

Prison conditions

We can provide general information about the country involved, prison conditions and the local legal system.

We can put you in touch with the prisoners’ welfare charity, Prisoners Abroad.

If the prison where your friend or relative is being detained agrees, we can pass on any money you want to send to buy prison ‘comforts’, use the phone and so on.

In many countries, mail sent or received by the prisoner will be opened and read by the authorities, and phone conversations may be monitored.

British National Derained at the Police tation or Detention Center in China

Police Station

If a British National finds themselves in a Police Station it is not usually too serious (normally fighting or a minor misdeed).  Serious cases will be taken directly to the Detention Centre.  However British Nationals do tend to panic when it happens to them.

British Citizens are not normally held in a police station overnight (although they may be there many hours and very late).  

If the police think the person is guilty for whatever he/she is in there for they will normally be asked to pay a fine and sign a confession.  If the police feel they are not guilty after all, they will just be asked to sign a confession.

Being asked to sign a confession is the main area of concern for our nationals (especially if they are not guilty!).  This is just a normal Chinese procedure and is largely a face saving exercise and closure to the paperwork for the police.  The police normally state that once the confession is signed the person will be free to go and there will be no further follow-up.

We do not attend the police station under such circumstances.

Detention Centre

For more serious problems, a British National will be detained (in the Detention Centre) for a suspected crime the amount of time they will be detained depends on the severity of the crime.  This again is very non-specific as the Public Security Bureau, can continuously ask for extensions to continue their investigations.  Only when they think they have enough evidence to pass it onto the procurators (prosecutors) will they.

As Consular Office we will visit the person in detention – as we have to put requests in writing (it usually takes about a week, however, depending on the location of the detainee, this can also take a lot longer).

We will try to visit the detainee every other month, again this can vary depending on the location.

We would not contact any NOK until we have gained full permission.