The UK has bilateral extradition treaties with only around three dozen countries, so most of the world’s nations, including China, Russia, Japan, Iran, North Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, are countries with no extradition treaty with the UK. That absence does not put fugitives permanently out of reach, but it does mean any return depends on ad hoc diplomacy, shared international conventions, Interpol cooperation, or the host country’s own immigration powers rather than a standing legal obligation.
The Home Office publishes the official list of the UK’s bilateral partners. Against roughly 200 sovereign states, just over 30 appear on it, including the United States, India, Brazil, Mexico, and the United Arab Emirates.1Home Office. Mutual Legal Assistance and Extradition: Treaty List Everything not on that list, and not covered by the post-Brexit EU surrender arrangement, is a non-treaty jurisdiction.
Major Non-Treaty Countries by Region
Asia
China has no bilateral extradition treaty with the UK, a position confirmed in parliamentary answers.2UK Parliament. Written Questions and Answers – Extradition: China and Hong Kong Japan is also outside the treaty network. The first Japanese extradition request ever made to the UK had to be handled through a special ad hoc arrangement under Section 194 of the Extradition Act 2003. North Korea has no treaty and no functioning cooperation route.
Middle East
Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and several other Gulf states sit outside the bilateral framework. Without a standing agreement, any request depends entirely on diplomatic channels and the discretion of the host government.
The United Arab Emirates is a common source of confusion. Despite widespread belief that Dubai is a safe haven from UK justice, the UAE signed a bilateral extradition treaty with the UK that entered into force in April 2008.3GOV.UK. Extradition Treaty Between the UK and the UAE on Extradition Suspects based there are, on paper, subject to formal proceedings.
Russia
Russia has no bilateral extradition treaty with the UK. Historically, even informal requests for cooperation have been rebuffed, most visibly in cases involving alleged state-sponsored poisonings on British soil. Judicial cooperation between the two states is essentially non-functional.
South America
Venezuela has no bilateral extradition treaty with the UK, and its political isolation makes informal cooperation unlikely. The rest of Latin America is more covered than most people assume: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia all appear on the UK’s official treaty list.1Home Office. Mutual Legal Assistance and Extradition: Treaty List
Hong Kong: Listed but Suspended
A treaty on the books is not necessarily a treaty in force. The UK-Hong Kong extradition arrangement operated for more than 30 years before the British government suspended it indefinitely in July 2020. The Foreign Secretary announced the suspension in Parliament, citing Hong Kong’s National Security Law and specifically the provisions allowing mainland Chinese authorities to take over cases and try them in mainland courts.4GOV.UK. Hong Kong and China: Foreign Secretary’s Statement in Parliament
The treaty technically remains listed, but no requests can proceed under it.2UK Parliament. Written Questions and Answers – Extradition: China and Hong Kong Suspension reflects a deliberate withdrawal of legal trust, usually because the UK has concluded that judicial safeguards in the partner territory no longer meet human rights standards.
EU Countries Are Not Non-Treaty Countries
Brexit ended UK participation in the European Arrest Warrant on 1 January 2021, but it did not leave the UK without an extradition route to the EU. Title VII of Part III of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement established a new surrender mechanism that broadly replaces the EAW.5GOV.UK. Extradition: Processes and Review Domestic law handles these requests through Part 1 of the Extradition Act 2003, which Parliament kept in place. EU member states, in other words, are not on the list of countries with no extradition arrangement with the UK.
How the UK Pursues Extradition Without a Treaty
Two mechanisms in the Extradition Act 2003 let the UK send or receive requests to and from non-treaty countries.5GOV.UK. Extradition: Processes and Review
Ad Hoc Special Arrangements (Section 194)
The Secretary of State can enter into “special extradition arrangements” that function as a one-off agreement covering a single named person for a specific set of alleged offences. Once the Secretary of State certifies the arrangement, it proceeds through the courts as though a formal treaty were in place. The first-ever Japanese extradition request to the UK ran through exactly this mechanism. These arrangements demand heavy diplomatic coordination and are far more labour-intensive than treaty-based requests, but they work.
International Convention Route (Section 193)
Where both the UK and the requesting country are parties to the same international convention, Section 193 of the Extradition Act allows the Secretary of State to designate the convention and the conduct it covers. If the request falls within scope, it proceeds as if the country were a Category 2 territory under the Act.6Legislation.gov.uk. Extradition Act 2003 – Section 193 This route matters for terrorism, drug trafficking, and corruption cases, where the UK and a non-treaty state may still share a UN convention.
Interpol Red Notices
A Red Notice is a request to police worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition or similar action. Interpol is explicit that a Red Notice is not an international arrest warrant, but member countries can and do use one as a basis for arrest under their own domestic laws.7INTERPOL. View Red Notices A fugitive living in a non-treaty country who transits through a cooperative third state can end up detained on that basis.
Deportation and Comity
Immigration authorities anywhere in the world can cancel a visa, declare a foreign national unwelcome, and put them on a plane. No treaty, court order, or negotiation is required. A visa overstay or a residency breach can lead to deportation to the person’s country of nationality, where UK authorities may then take over. Some governments also hand people back voluntarily as a matter of comity, a goodwill gesture, without any legal duty to do so.
Why Non-Treaty Extradition Often Fails Anyway
Even where the diplomatic pieces fall into place, several legal barriers under the Extradition Act 2003 can block the actual transfer.
Dual criminality. The conduct must be a criminal offence in both the UK and the requesting country. If someone is wanted for behaviour that is lawful in the UK, the request fails no matter how serious the offence is elsewhere. A 2025 UK Supreme Court ruling reinforced that for extraterritorial offences, the UK must also recognise extraterritorial jurisdiction over equivalent conduct in corresponding circumstances.
Speciality. The requesting country cannot prosecute the person for anything other than the offence listed in the extradition request. Without adequate speciality arrangements, extradition is barred.8Legislation.gov.uk. Extradition Act 2003 – Section 17 For ad hoc arrangements, speciality has to be written into the deal.
Death penalty. The Secretary of State must refuse extradition to any country where the person could be sentenced to death for the offence, unless the requesting country gives a written assurance that the death penalty will not be imposed, or if imposed, will not be carried out.9Legislation.gov.uk. Extradition Act 2003 – Section 94 Many non-treaty countries retain capital punishment, so this bar bites hard.
Human rights. A judge must assess whether extradition would be compatible with the person’s rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, as incorporated by the Human Rights Act 1998. If extradition would expose the person to torture, inhuman treatment, or a flagrantly unfair trial, the judge must order their discharge.10Legislation.gov.uk. Extradition Act 2003 – Explanatory Notes This is where non-treaty cases most often collapse in practice. The absence of a treaty and the presence of serious human rights concerns tend to travel together.
British Overseas Territories Are Not Automatically Covered
The UK’s extradition treaties do not automatically extend to Overseas Territories such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and the British Virgin Islands. These territories have their own legal systems, and the Extradition Act 2003 reaches them only through the Extradition Act 2003 (Overseas Territories) Order 2016.11Legislation.gov.uk. The Extradition Act 2003 (Overseas Territories) Order 2016 Under that order, the Governor of each territory exercises certain extradition functions, and a UK bilateral treaty must be specifically extended before it takes effect there. A treaty that covers the UK mainland may not cover the Cayman Islands unless it has been separately extended, which matters for anyone tracing cross-border financial conduct routed through these jurisdictions.