Applications made by three out of the four Uighurs living in Bermuda for naturalisation are being reviewed by the British Government, MPs heard yesterday.

Patricia Gordon-Pamplin, the Minister for Home Affairs, provided the update in response to questions from Progressive Labour Party MPs during the budget debate of her ministry’s spending.

“The UK Government is currently reviewing the naturalisation applications of three of the four Uighurs,” she said.

“If that is granted they can then obtain passports.

“This is a very positive development.”

Walton Brown, the Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, asked Ms Gordon-Pamplin what had changed to allow the UK to state publicly that they were reviewing the applications.

Ms Gordon-Pamplin responded: “The response I have been given is that they have been on island over five years with indefinite permission to stay so they are eligible to apply under the British Nationality Act.”

She said she did not know why only three of the four Uighurs’ applications were being reviewed.

The four Uighurs, Abdullah Abdulqadir, Khalil Mamut, Ablikim Turahun and Salahidin Abdulahad, who are originally from Chinese Turkestan, were secretly brought to Bermuda from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in 2009.

They have remained stranded and stateless in Bermuda ever since then and unable to leave the island.