Government House has refused a public access to information request to release correspondence about the four Uighurs who came to Bermuda from Guantánamo Bay.

The Royal Gazette asked for the correspondence on January 17, but Deputy Governor Ginny Ferson rejected the application.

Ms Ferson, information officer for Government House, wrote: “Your request for information has been carefully considered but the records you are seeking are exempt from disclosure under sections 32 (national security, defence and international relations) and 33 (Governor’s responsibilities and communications with the United Kingdom) of the Public Access to Information Act 2010.”

This newspaper requested: “All correspondence on the four Uighurs who came to Bermuda on June 11, 2009 from Guantánamo. This would be correspondence between Government House and the US authorities, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the Bermuda Government, between January 1, 2009 and today’s date.”

The Pati Act does provide an exemption in cases where the disclosure of information could prejudice the security or defence of the island or relations with another state or where it contains information communicated in confidence by another state.

It also includes an exemption for information relating to the responsibilities of the Governor under the Constitution “the disclosure of which could prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs” and communications between the Office of the Governor and departments of the Government of the United Kingdom.

But the Act also states, under both sections 32 and 33, that “a record shall be disclosed if disclosure of it is in the public interest”.

Ms Ferson’s letter does not detail whether the public interest test was applied to our Pati request but we have requested an internal appeal of her decision by Governor John Rankin.

The Uighurs — Khalil Mamut, Abdulla Abdulqadir, Ablikim Turahun and Salahidin Abdulahad, who are originally from Chinese Turkestan — were brought to Bermuda from Cuba after Ewart Brown, who was then Premier, and former national security minister David Burch struck a deal with the United States, without the United Kingdom’s knowledge.

Dr Brown told a press conference on the day they arrived that the men were “landed in Bermuda in the short term, provided with the opportunity to become naturalised citizens and thereafter afforded the right to travel and leave Bermuda, potentially settling elsewhere”.

But almost eight years later, they remain in limbo, without passports and unable to leave the island. Their young children are in the same position.

As revealed by this newspaper yesterday, Mr Abdulqadir is pleading with British authorities to let his five-year-old son receive specialist medical treatment overseas for pains in his groin, which doctors here have been unable to diagnose.

According to their lawyer, Richard Horseman, all four men have applied for themselves and their children to be naturalised as British overseas territory citizens but have not heard back on their applications.

In addition to the Pati request to Government House, The Royal Gazette has also made requests to the Department of Immigration and the Cabinet Office for records concerning the Uighurs.

The request to Immigration sought records held by the Department on the former prisoners, including any permission they or their dependents have to live and work in Bermuda and any rejections issued for Bermudian status, permanent residency or other immigration status.

A response, including eight pages of records, was received by this newspaper at 5pm yesterday and is being reviewed.

The Cabinet Office has asked that we narrow our Pati request, which asked for: “All correspondence between the Cabinet Office, including the Premier, and the US authorities regarding the four Uighurs . . . from January 1, 2009 to [January 17, 2017].”

The Cabinet Office’s information officer said: “The request received as presented appears to be too broad, and could result in a refusal on administrative grounds.” The officer said the number of records requested would likely cause a “substantial and unreasonable interference” with the work of the department.

This newspaper is considering the request to revise.