What we do

Our vision is the day when no British citizen detained abroad is subject to torture, inhumane or degrading treatment contrary to international conventions. A society where prisoners and their families do not suffer undue hardship as a result of overseas imprisonment.

Prisoners Abroad is a lifeline for Britons detained overseas and their families by providing for their practical and emotional needs and campaigning to promote their human rights.
 
Prisoners Abroad exists to safeguard the welfare and basic human rights of British citizens detained abroad. We attempt to alleviate the isolation and deprivation experienced by both prisoners abroad and their families in the UK. We seek to prevent deprivation amongst Britons returning from abroad and assist them in building crime-free lives.

How we work

Prisoners Abroad makes no moral judgment about its clients: we help convicted and unconvicted, guilty or innocent, solely on the basis of need.

We aim to provide an excellent service to our clients by being a professional organisation that values its staff and is run along the principles of accountability and quality. We are committed to working positively against unfair discrimination and to the principle of user involvement. We seek to ensure that our resources are used in the most optimal and cost effective way to support our clients and their families.
 
We work in partnership with organisations to achieve our goals. They are both statutory and voluntary organisations that share our vision that no British citizen detained abroad should be subject to torture, inhumane or degrading treatment and that support our work with families and returnees.

We always seek to adhere to the highest levels of best practice in the work we do and the way the charity is governed. We are certified up to Level 1 of the PQASSO quality standard scheme. We involve current and ex-service users in all aspects of the work we do, and regularly evaluate our work to ensure that it is achieving the outcomes we have set ourselves.

Services

The services we offer breakdown into three main categories

1. Services to Britons held overseas. See our Prisoner Support section for more details, or click here to read how we helped Michael in Brazil.
2. Services to familes and friends of Britons held overseas. See Helping Families for more details. Or click here to read about the support we offered Pat when her daughter was arrested and sentenced to prison in Spain.
3. Services to Britons returning to the UK from prison overseas. See Coming home to the UK for more details. Or click here to read about how we helped Mark resettle in the UK after he was released from prison in Australia.