The Pentagon says that 15 Guantanamo Bay detainees have been transferred to the United Arab Emirates, the largest transfer under the Obama administration.
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The Pentagon says 61 detainees remain at Guantanamo.
Gulf News reported that once transferred overseas, inmates are usually freed and subject to supervision and participation in rehabilitation programs.
Naureen Shah, security and human rights programme director for Amnesty International US, urged Mr Obama to close the facility before he left office, saying, “we are at an extremely unsafe and pivotal point”. Mr. Obama has been blocked by Congress in his intention either to close the Guantanamo facility, or to transfer some or all of the prisoners to detention facilities on US soil for trial.
However his efforts have been hampered by Republican lawmakers.
The UAE successfully resettled five detainees transferred there past year, according to the Pentagon. In 2009, there were 242 men imprisoned at Guantanamo.
Foreign governments are realizing that “if you want to get attention in the Obama administration, one way to do it is to take Guantanamo detainees”, the official said.
The details serve as a defiant reminder that the Obama administration is working to shrink Guantanamo’s population as much as possible before Obama leaves office despite congressional efforts to slow or block the moves.
President Barack Obama isn’t likely to keep his pledge to close it during his eight years in office. The PRBs cleared six detainees this year alone, as recently as May 31. Republican Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement that the Obama administration was “doubling down on policies that put American lives at risk” in a race to close the controversial facility. Since federal law prohibits trying US citizens in military commissions, Trump’s plan is an odd variation on a longstanding debate over the military commissions system to try noncitizens.
Obama went ahead with the plan despite official reports that at least 12 detainees released from Guantanamo have launched attacks against USA or allied forces in Afghanistan, killing about a half-dozen Americans. As of today, 693 of them have either been released or transferred to another country.
British resident Shaker Aamer (below) was held without charge in Guantanamo Bay from 2002 to 2015 after being captured by bounty hunters in Afghanistan in 2001, and claimed he was tortured during his detention there.
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Fifteen prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center were sent to the United Arab Emirates in the single largest release of detainees during the Obama administration, the Pentagon announced Monday.
