Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in the US gulag at Guantanamo Bay, has appealed to the British government to apply new pressure on the US to secure his freedom.

Mr Aamer was transferred from Afghanistan to Guantanamo 12 years ago today, on February 14 2002.

He continues to be held without charge or trial despite having twice been cleared for release.

He is one of around 35 prisoners on hunger strike to highlight their continued detention and the conditions they are forced to endure.

In a recent letter to his lawyer, Reprieve’s director Clive Stafford Smith, Mr Aamer said: “The world has to tell the US government that they have lost their direction. The people best placed to do this are the British government.”

Mr Aamer also described the difficulties of daily life at the hands of the prison authorities: “Yesterday, my fellow detainee Emad Hassan did not take his legal call, for the same reason every time he misses a phone call or a meeting.

“They intimidate him by telling him before he goes: ‘We’ll do a full body search’ — the ‘scrotum-groping search’ as they call it.

“So Emad goes with them to the Camp 5 exit where they plan to do the search, and when he sees them ready to carry out a full body search he tells them that he refuses the humiliation and demands to go back to his cell.

“The authorities don’t want someone like Emad to let the world know what has happened to him.”

A protest will take place today outside the offices of MI6 in London amid fears the secret service may be blocking Mr Aamer’s release.

He has stated that he was subjected to repeated torture and abuse and that on several occasions MI5 and MI6 officers were present.

He has also accused the secret service of briefing against him and providing knowingly false information to his captors in an attempt to suppress further evidence of Britain’s complicity in his torture.

In 2012 lawyers acting for Mr Aamer filed a defamation suit against MI5 and MI6 over the alleged passing of false information to his US interrogators.

Joy Hurcombe of the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign told the Star: “In September 2013 Prime Minister David Cameron wrote to President Obama to ‘make it clear that we want Shaker Aamer released and returned to the UK as a matter of urgency.’

“If MI5 and MI6 are lying about Mr Aamer to prevent his return, they are acting against the will of Parliament. Their statements must be retracted.”