Released Guantanamo Bay detainees face continued persecution outside

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Intercept
28 Jun 2023 12:38
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The extensive investigation of the UN special rapporteur into Guantanamo Bay reveals that ex-detainees face cruel treatment even after their release.

Detainees from Afghanistan sit in their cells at Camp X-Ray at the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, February 2, 2002. (AP)

The investigation released by the United Nations special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, Fionnuala Ni Aolain, has found that Guantanamo Bay detainees face human rights abuses even after their release.

Details released in the extensive report show that detainees who have been released from the prison complex, but who could not be repatriated to their countries, have faced arbitrary detention and torture in the host countries they were sent to instead.

Ex-detainees who were relocated to a "third" country, such as the United Arab Emirates or Kazakhstan, were met with conditions similar to those they faced during their time in the US prison, according to Ni Aolain.

The special rapporteur said in the UAE "multiple former detainees were subject to arbitrary detention and torture, and one remains detained in incommunicado detention," while those sent to Kazakhstan "effectively remain under house arrest and are unable to live a normal and dignified life due to the secondary security measures put in place post transfer."

Aolain highlighted Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates as two countries of “egregious” concern where men have been sent to another form of prison.

The report highlights the conditions of the men released from the US military prison in resettlement deals, as 30% of the documented cases have not been given proper legal status by their host countries. This puts the affected ex-detainees at risk of "precluding them and their families from access to certain public benefits, health care, education, as well as foreign travel, or a path to citizenship, all of which are fundamental entitlement under international human rights law," the investigation underlined.

The special rapporteur has urged the US to facilitate the resettlement of ex-detainees suffering from human rights abuses at the hands of their host countries.

"There is a legal and moral obligation for the U.S. government to use all of its diplomatic and legal resources to facilitate (re)transfer of these men, with meaningful assurance and support to other countries."

This comes at a time when the US has previously denied that such a legal or moral obligation exists, as a State Department representative, Vincent Picard, told The Intercept that "once security assurances have expired, and pending any specific renegotiation of assurances, it largely falls to the discretion of the host country to determine what security measures they continue to implement."

The UN report advises that "a formal and effective follow-up system be established as part of the remedial obligations owed by the U.S. government."

Such a system is thought to have provided ex-detainees with protection from the ill-treatment they received as soon as they reached their host countries.

"This was a mistake by the Americans in the beginning, and the Americans will not be able to change our situation inside this country," Muhammad Ali Husayn Khanayna, one of the two surviving detainees sent to Kazakhstan told The Intercept.

"They only have to get us out of here."