As a part of his administration’s crackdown on unlawful immigration, US president Donald Trump has introduced that the USA will maintain migrants on the infamous Guantánamo navy detention facility in Cuba.
Recognized primarily for holding suspects accused of terrorism-related offences, Trump ordered the preparation of a 30,000-person “migrant facility” that he mentioned could be used to “detain the worst felony unlawful aliens threatening the American individuals.”
Cuba’s overseas minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla mentioned the thought “exhibits contempt in the direction of the human situation and worldwide regulation”.
Beneath, are some key info in regards to the detention facility within the US-run navy enclave.
What’s the historical past of Guantánamo?
The Guantánamo Bay navy jail was opened in January 2002 on a US naval base on a coastal spit of land in southeastern Cuba, leased from Havana below a treaty relationship again to 1903.
The detention facility was arrange after the 11 September 2001 assaults below the administration of then-president George W Bush to take care of prisoners who have been termed “enemy combatants” and denied many US authorized rights.
Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden each sought to shut the power, however Congress has opposed efforts to shutter Guantánamo and it stays open to this present day.
Obama’s administration gave up on efforts to carry trials in New York and place long-term detainees in an empty jail in Illinois within the face of livid native opposition.
Have migrants ever been detained at Guantánamo?
The New York Occasions reported in September 2024 that the Guantánamo navy base had additionally been used for many years by the US to detain migrants intercepted at sea, however in an space separate from that used to carry these accused of terrorism.
A comparatively small variety of migrants have been detained on the facility – the Occasions reported that simply 37 migrants have been held there from 2020 to 2023 – however that might enhance dramatically following Trump’s announcement.
Trump has launched what his second administration is casting as a main crackdown on unlawful migration, trumpeting immigration raids and arrests and deportations on navy plane.
Are there nonetheless prisoners there?
Of the roughly 800 individuals detained on suspicion of militant exercise or terrorism-related offences who’ve been held at Guantánamo since early 2002, solely 15 inmates at the moment stay, after the launch of a lot of detainees towards the top of Biden’s administration.
Three of the 15 are eligible for switch, three are eligible for a evaluation for attainable launch, seven are going through fees and two have been convicted and sentenced, the defence division mentioned earlier this January when it introduced the discharge of 11 Yemenis who had been held there.
Who’re essentially the most infamous detainees?
Guantánamo homes a number of accused plotters of the 9/11 assaults, amongst them self-proclaimed mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Its inmates additionally embrace the person accused of masterminding the assault on the USS Cole in 2000, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. He was captured in 2002 and transferred to Guantánamo in 2006.
However few of the prisoners held on the infamous facility have ever been charged, or convicted. About 780 detainees have been held there over the previous 20 years, a lot of them swept up arbitrarily on the battlefield. One college research discovered that 55% of them had not dedicated hostile acts in opposition to the US or its allies.
Aren’t there main issues about human rights violations?
The circumstances at Guantánamo Bay have prompted constant outcry from rights teams, and UN consultants have condemned it as a web site of “unparalleled notoriety.”
The jail camp is seen by critics as a authorized anomaly and lead weight wrapped round America’s international popularity.
Among the many controversies to emerge from Guantánamo was the observe of force-feeding inmates on starvation strike. The US navy defended it as a crucial medical therapy, however critics likened it to torture.
Dubbed “enteral feeding,” the method includes inserting a tube up an inmate’s nostril and into his abdomen, then pumping in liquid nutrient.
Over the previous 20 years, at the very least 9 inmates have died within the camp, seven of them by obvious suicide.
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