Rights groups demand end to asylum seeker detentions in Guantanamo
Al Jazeera
US cannot keep hiding its ‘mistreatment of asylum seekers by exiling them,’ says letter signed by 125 organisations.
Dozens of rights groups have urged the United States government to stop holding asylum seekers at a detention facility at its Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba, claiming its conditions are illegal and inhumane.
The coalition of 125 rights organisations, led by the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) and Haitian Bridge Alliance, made their plea on Wednesday in an open letter to US President Joe Biden.
“We demand that your administration close the Guantanamo Migrant Operations Center (MOC) and process asylum seekers encountered at sea in a manner consistent with US human rights obligations,” the letter stated.
“The US government cannot continue to hide its diversion and mistreatment of asylum seekers by exiling them to Guantanamo, out of reach of their families, advocates, public consciousness – and the law,” it added.
The groups also called on the US government to stop intercepting sea-bound migrants from Haiti and sending them back to “war-like” conditions in their country, a fate shared by hundreds of unaccompanied children between 2021 and 2023, according to a ProPublica investigation.
