Biden accused of plans to house Haitian migrants at Guantanamo Bay

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
31 Oct 2022 15:18
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At the notorious US-run Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, the United States intends to establish a temporary holding facility for Haitian migrants.

The Department of Homeland Security headquarters (AP)

The Biden administration is preparing for what may be a major departure of Haitians and is considering a plan to temporarily house the migrants in a third nation or use a facility at Guantanamo Bay, according to a report on Sunday.

The number of migrants that would need the US to name the third country to process Haitians apprehended at sea is a topic of discussion between the National Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security.

Talks also center on the approximate number of migrants needed to create a "lily pad" in that nation and force their transfer to the US base in Cuba, according to NBC News, which cited officials and a planning document it saw.

The US Coast Guard has been picking up migrants in the Caribbean for more than 30 years, and the Migrant Operations Center at Guantanamo will now have 400 beds available, according to the report, claiming that the center will be separate from the facility that holds prisoners the US deems "terrorist".

A National Security Council spokesperson said the US is “committed to supporting the people of Haiti.” “We recently delivered Haitian government-purchased security equipment, including tactical and armored vehicles and supplies, that will assist the Haitian National Police in their fight against criminal actors inciting violence,” the person told NBC.

According to the spokesman, there is already personnel from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the United States Agency for International Development in Haiti to deal with a cholera outbreak.

A spokesperson for the DHS said the agency “continues to closely monitor the situation in Haiti and there are longstanding contingency plans ready in the event of a surge in maritime migration. As we have repeatedly said, irregular maritime voyages in the Caribbean are always dangerous and very often deadly, and we urge individuals not to put their lives at risk.”

What is Guantanamo Bay?

The notoriously run Guantanamo Bay holds prisoners accused of terrorism but also holds the stories of innocent people that are tortured and later on found not guilty. It is a detention facility that has occupied Cuban land till this day and has hosted hundreds of men with untried allegations of terrorism during the so-called "war on terror" waged by the United States in West Asia in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in New York 21 years ago.

The oldest detainee in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba was released to his home country, Pakistan, on Saturday, as revealed by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry and the Pentagon.

According to the US Department of Defense, Saif Ullah Paracha, who is now 75, was released after it was determined that his detention "was no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States," which stands for innocence in the real world.

In another case, there is Ammar Al-Baluchi, also known as Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, a 44-year-old Pakistani citizen born in Kuwait and currently detained by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. He was subjected to excessive torture methods, including waterboarding, walling, sexual humiliation, beating, and sleep deprivation.

Al-Baluchi suffered from brain damage after being exploited as a live prop for trainee interrogators at a secret CIA black site in Afghanistan for years.