A human rights advocate has urged the UK Government to give the former Guantanamo prisoners the certain future they deserve and not to block Bermuda's decision to re-home them.

Tom Malinowski, director of the Washington office of Human Rights Watch, said it would be "profoundly petty and cruel" if disgruntled officials in London attempted to force a U-turn on the controversial decision.

Hundreds of Bermuda residents marched on the Cabinet building on Tuesday to call for the Premier to step down over his decision to bring the four Chinese Muslim men to the Island.

The former prisoners, who are ethnic Uighurs, were admitted to Bermuda under the guest worker programme, having been confined in the US prison camp for seven years. They deny ever having been terrorists and have twice been cleared by the US of being enemy combatants. The US searched unsuccessfully for months for a country to take them before Bermuda agreed.

However, Governor Sir Richard Gozney said after their arrival on the Island that the Government of Bermuda brought them here without any consultation with the UK through Government House.

In a press conference yesterday he said the decision to bring them to Bermuda was invalid, but added that the four Uighurs "cannot and should not go back" to Guantanamo Bay. He would not elaborate on what other options were available.

Mr. Malinowski, director of the Washington office of Human Rights Watch, said of the political controversy earlier this week: "I do hope that doesn't in any way hinder the resettlement of these men or make it more difficult for them to resume normal life in Bermuda.

"The political issues will be worked out by the politicians. I think the men are desperate for a normal life. They are desperate to be given a chance just to breathe and to work and not to be uncertain about their future.

"I think one of the worst things about being in Guantanamo is not just the confinement but the uncertainly about what's going to happen. That's been a terrible source of anxiety."

Asked if he feared London would seek to overturn the Government of Bermuda's decision and plunge the men back into uncertainty, Mr. Malinowski said: "I don't believe London is going to say that. That would be seen by the British people as a profoundly petty and cruel decision.

"I think if the British Government has questions on the way the Bermudian Government handled this, that's something the two Governments should work out. It should not affect the position of these men.

"The British Government has been looking for years for the closure of Guantanamo ... for the British to say Guantanamo should be closed and then make it impossible for these men to resettle? That would be the height of hypocrisy."

He added: "We're very grateful to the Government of Bermuda for taking this up. It is a humanitarian gesture, it helps to right a terrible wrong, and it helps President Obama tremendously."

Asked for Premier Ewart Brown's reaction to the Human Rights Watch stance, his spokesman Glenn Jones said: "We have been generally encouraged by the level of strong support we have seen from the international human rights community, members of Congress and the Obama administration."