Up to 14,000 people are being held by US and UK forces without charge or trial in breach of international law, according to a report from Amnesty International.
Published today, the 48-page report, Beyond Abu Ghraib: Detention and torture in Iraq,says more than 200 people have been imprisoned for over two years, with nearly 4,000 imprisoned for 12 months or more.
The number held in Iraq is almost 30 times the 490 held without charge or trial at the controversial Guantanamo Bay base.
The report is heavily critical of US and UK forces for justifying internment on the basis of "secretive and unaccountable procedures that detainees are unable to effectively challenge". Those held are described as "security detainees".
Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said: "After the horrors of life under Saddam and then the fresh horror of US prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, it is shocking to discover that the Multinational Forces are detaining thousands of people without charge or trial.
"Not only have there been recent cases of prisoners being tortured in detention, but to hold this huge number of people without basic legal safeguards is a gross dereliction of responsibility on the part of both the US and UK forces," she added.
According to the report interned prisoners are denied visits from lawyers or relatives for the first 60 days of their detention, and "many prisoners have despaired of ever being released or being given an opportunity to challenge their detention".
The report points to recent cases of torture by Iraqi forces, especially by individuals connected to the Iraq Interior Ministry, as being of "particular concern".
PA