My Story

Thank you for supporting our team as we raise funds for Prisoners Abroad. We will be walking 10km on Tuesday 18th June as part in the 20th anniversary of the London Legal Walk with the Lady Chief Justice and thousands of others.

Our team is: Meg, Zeta, Nadine, Bryony, Meghan, Laura, Christopher, Umme, Nancy, Chiara, and Sam!

Prisoners Abroad works to protect the health, wellbeing, and basic human rights of British citizens detained abroad. We strive to ease the isolation and deprivation experienced by prisoners abroad and their families at home. On their return to the UK, we prevent their homelessness and destitution and support people to rebuild their lives and have a future free of crime.

While Prisoners Abroad does not provide direct legal advice, our life-saving welfare support is closely intertwined with the rights of British people imprisoned around the world and directly impacts the justice and legal issues they face. Here are just some of the ways we support people through imprisonment in a foreign country:

•                     We provide handbooks and factsheets including information on issues such as applying for transfer to the UK, and prisoners’ rights and the legal process: https://www.prisonersabroad.org.uk/human-rights-and-legal-information

•                     We offer linguistic support in the form of volunteer translators and provision of language learning materials, such as dictionaries and phrase books, so people can understand legal documents they have been given and communicate with prison officials and local lawyers.

•                     We have created a power of attorney form, put together by a pro bono law firm, to help family and friends managing the affairs of their loved one throughout a sentence.

•                     Our telephone helpline gives people direct access to our casework team who can provide advice on extradition, deportation, appealing a sentence, key questions to ask a lawyer, free legal aid, and early release and clemency applications.

•                     We can write parole support letters to explain to parole boards what help can be in place upon release to aid in a prisoner’s resettlement.

•                     Our family travel fund assists family to attend court proceedings and prison visits.

•                     For the family members who attend our regional and themed support groups, we can signpost them to charities and legal advice within the UK.

•                     We identify and report torture, mistreatment, and unfair trials to our Human Rights Advisers for advice and follow-up.

•                     Upon release, our resettlement team can advise on taking the Habitual Residence Test and people’s rights to pensions and welfare benefit support.

Thank you so much for your support!