FOREIGN Secretary David Miliband was under pressure last night to explain how four Chinese detainees from Guantanamo Bay came to be released to a UK territory without the knowledge of Whitehall.
An urgent security assessment is under way after Bermuda accepted the Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs, without consulting the Foreign Office.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We have underlined to the Bermuda government that it should have consulte
d the UK on whether this falls within their competence.
"We have made clear to the Bermuda government the need for a security assessment, which we are now helping them to carry out."
He added that the four did not have papers, so could not travel elsewhere at present.
The Uighurs were freed yesterday after being detained at Guantanamo Bay for nearly ten years. They were among 17 Chinese Muslims picked up in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001, remaining in Cuba even after the US government determined they should be released.
Bermuda's premier, Ewart Brown, said the men will be allowed to live in Bermuda, a self-governing British territory, initially as refugees, but they would be permitted to pursue citizenship and would have the right to work, travel and "potentially settle elsewhere".
US officials refused to return the Uighurs to China out of concerns they would be tortured or executed. China has long said that insurgents are leading an Islamic separatist movement in Xinjiang, the region that borders Afghanistan and Pakistan.
