Alastair Long, the British ambassador to Bahrain, received the Order of Bahrain from King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa this week. The award was given in recognition of Long's diplomatic tenure.

Under Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office policy, heads of UK missions must not accept foreign awards during, on, or after leaving posts. Foreign governments must request permission to grant awards to UK nationals. A source stated that the Bahraini government had not requested permission to grant the award to Long.

This marks the fourth time a British ambassador to Bahrain has received such an award. Iain Lindsay, Simon Martin, and Roderick Drummond, all predecessors of Long, previously received similar honors. Freedom of information requests from 2023 showed emails within the Foreign Office advising that Drummond should decline the Order of Bahrain. These emails suggested that if the award could not be declined, it should be politely accepted as a keepsake to avoid embarrassment. For Drummond, Bahrain had notified the British government about the award in advance, a practice not observed for his predecessors.

Lord Scriven, a Liberal Democrat peer, wrote a letter to Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper concerning Long's acceptance of the award. He stated, "This sends a clear message: our diplomats and civil servants are up for grabs." Scriven also said, "This trend does raise a number of significant issues for the UK government, particularly in light of the worsening human rights position in Bahrain." He added, "It's quite clear that the foreign secretary and politicians are not in charge. Who are British ambassadors and diplomats actually working for? It's now becoming unclear." Scriven described a related clearance of Tariq Ahmad as "whitewashing." The letter expressed concerns about Bahrain's mass revocation of citizenship for Shia Muslims of Iranian heritage, targeted arrests of activists and Shia clerics, and the torture and death of Sayed Mohamed Almosawi, who was forcibly disappeared in Bahrain in March.

Human Rights Watch reported that Almosawi, 32, is said to have died in custody and bore signs of torture. The organization also reported that the Bahraini government continues to suppress free speech and has arbitrarily detained human rights defenders and political leaders. Last year, the Bahraini government granted amnesty to 630 prisoners.

Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, advocacy director at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy and a torture survivor who fled persecution by the Bahraini authorities, stated, "It was clear to us that Ambassador Long would be rewarded by Bahrain's ruler after praising his 'visionary leadership' despite his brutal and dictatorial rule." Alwadaei also said, "No British diplomat should accept an honour from a ruler at a time when infants are being stripped of their citizenship and rendered stateless, and a 32-year-old man has been tortured to death." He called for the foreign secretary to "take a stand against the dictator's systematic disregard for British rules and diplomatic norms, if those rules are to mean anything."

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office declined to comment on the record.