MF in the media
BBC World Service: Assignment: Torture survivors unlawfully detained
11 February, 2010
Every year thousands of asylum seekers are detained in Britain, many of them torture survivors. They are held while the Home Office decides whether to grant their claim for asylum or to remove them from the country. It's part of what is supposed to be a faster and more effective system for dealing with asylum. But there are claims that the Government is routinely breaching its own guidelines by detaining vulnerable asylum seekers, including torture survivors, unlawfully. The MF's Dr Juliet Cohen speaks to the BBC about how the system is failing people fleeing torture who seek refuge in the UK.
Link: BBC: Torture survivors unlawfully detained
Telegraph: Doctors who assist in torture should be brought to justice
6 August, 2009
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist with the MF, Dr William Hopkins, pointed to the part played by medics in the torture of terror suspects detained by the US. In the calls for investigations into alleged complicity, near silence has surrounded the involvement of doctors in overseeing torture and contravening medical ethics, said Dr Hopkins.
Link: Telegraph: August 2009
Guardian: The unheard voices of torture victims
5 August, 2009
In a letter to the Guardian newspaper, CEO Simon Carruth commended the work of journalists and Parliament in calling for greater accountability and transparency in the UK government's treatment of terror suspects alleging UK complicity in their torture, and he highlighted the equally important plight of thousands of other torture survivors who remain anonymous.
Link: Guardian: August 2009
BBC: UK 'failing' victims of torture
10 December, 2008
The urgent plight of torture survivors housed in cramped, pest-infested, insecure accommodation has been highlighted by a BBC report exposing the Government's shortcomings in meeting international human rights standards.
Link: BBC, December 2008
Vanity Fair: The Green Light
1 May, 2008
Medical Foundation helps international human rights lawyer Philippe Sands uncover torture techniques used in the "war on terror". His controversial new book, 'Torture Team: Cruelty, Deception and the Compromise of Law', published in May 2008, is previewed here in Vanity Fair.
Link: Vanity Fair, April 2008
Waterboarding: the most horrific experience of my life
4 March, 2008
Medical Foundation patron and former Japanese Prisoner of War Eric Lomax makes a compelling case against waterboarding, which he was subjected to in 1943.
Link: Times, March 2008
Waterboarding: adding insult to injury
15 February, 2008
The Medical Foundation denounces arguments put forward by the US government that waterboarding is an acceptable tool in the "war on terror", detailing the reality as experienced by victims.
Link: Guardian: Letter, February 2008
John Furse
1 January, 2003
The director, screenwriter and producer John Furse has worked on several projects with the Medical Foundation, including 'Blind Flight', the film of MF patrons Brian Keenan and John McCarthy's ordeal as Lebanon hostages.
Link: http://www.johnfurse.co.uk