Blair seeks deportation deal with Algeria

Tony Blair has given his backing to moves that would allow the UK to deport terrorism suspects to Algeria.

During talks in Number 10 with Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the prime minister called for closer co-operation.

Downing Street has said talks on the agreement will continue after Tuesday's afternoon's meeting between the two leaders.

Ministers hope the deal will open the way for Algerian nationals to be deported to their homeland without infringing European Court of Human Rights rulings.

"I certainly hope that greater co-operation between our countries can facilitate our ability to send people back to Algeria who are in this country and who for reasons for example of involvement in extremism we wish to deport," Blair said.

"It's important to realise that we all of us - even if in different ways - face the same issues to do with this global terrorism and it's important that we co-operate as much as possible together.

"The single most frustrating thing for me is when we need to be able... to deport people from this country who are causing trouble here and we are told we can't do so, because that then imposes quite an unnecessary risk on our country."

But Amnesty International has warned against deportations to Algeria, saying that torture and other forms of ill-treatment continue to be perpetrated there.

It said that governments should not forcibly return anyone to Algeria who could be at risk of torture or ill-treatment, regardless of any "diplomatic assurances" from the Algerian authorities that returnees will not suffer such penalties.

The human rights group also said on Monday that Algeria systematically holds suspects in secret places of detention while their families receive no information about their whereabouts, sometimes for months.

Amnesty claimed that methods of torture being used in the country include beatings, electric shocks, the suspension of detainees from the ceiling and the forced ingestion of dirty water, urine or chemicals.

Most detainees do not have access to a lawyer when they are first brought before a judge, it added.

The Algerian authorities have been engaged in a bitter counter-insurgency battle with Islamic extremists for more than a decade, although there has been less terrorist activity in recent years.

The Foreign Office website says: "Terrorist groups operate in Algeria. Although most of their attacks are directed at security forces, there have been incidents of armed violence against civilians and villages."

Amnesty called on the British government to do more to help end torture and ill-treatment in Algeria.