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Geneva, Switzerland and Washington DC (GenevaLunch) – The US military has begun a policy of handing over to the International Red Cross (ICRC) the names of detainees held in two camps in Iraq and Afghanistan, the New York Times reports. ICRC has broad access to all detainees held by the US military, but two camps that are part of the US Defense Department’s Special Operations programme are off-limits, until the detainees are formally transferred to a prison in either country. The military name for the camps is “temporary screening sites”, camps in which high-level combat detainees are interrogated. The new policy affects about 30 to 40 prisoners at any time in camps at Balad, Iraq and Bagram air force base in Afghanistan, according to the newspaper, which cites unnamed sources.

Neither the US Defense Department nor the ICRC signaled the change in policy, in which the Pentagon reportedly will inform the ICRC of the names of detainees within two weeks of being captured. Until now, the military could hold a captive in the two camps for a maximum of two weeks, and then either had to release him or ask Secretary of Defense Robert Gates for a one-week extension of his detention, or transfer him to a long-term prison. The ICRC was given details only once the detainee passed into the regular prison system. The new policy, if confirmed, would better allow the ICRC to track detainees in the system and to inform families of their detention.

It was among a series of recommendations made by a senior US Air Force official in a secret report dated 17 June.

Related: Reuters