Charities hopeful for Gitmo solution
Thursday, 26 February 2009 12:00 AM
By Jonathan Moore
Charities are hopeful a meeting of EU interior ministers today will lead them a step closer to accepting prisoners from Guantanamo Bay.
Following president Obama's announcement he would close the controversial Caribbean prison the US have been asking countries worldwide whether they can offer a home to those currently in Cuba.
It is hoped the meeting of immigration and interior ministers from across the continent will provide the groundwork for countries to accept former detainees.
A spokesman for Reprieve said this was a hopeful step forward as interior ministers would be the people actually dealing with prisoners entering their borders.
He said: "I think this is a positive step towards making the resettlement of the Guantanamo prisoners actually happen.
"Interior ministers, in combination with the will of foreign ministers, may be able to take some concrete steps to find a safe haven for some of these prisoners."
He added they had recently had a meeting with EU officials and were surprised to discover how little information they had about specific prisoners.
Charity members were meeting with senior government officials but had to supply the politicians with details about prisoners and their circumstances.
Reprieve, along with Amnesty International, the Centre for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch and the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) sent a letter to the Justice and Home Affairs ministers (JHA) before their meeting today.
It said: "There are approximately 245 men who continue to be indefinitely detained in Guantánamo. Approximately 60 cannot safely be repatriated.
"None of these men has been charged or has any expectation of ever being charged. Many have even been told by the US government that they should be released, some of them years ago.
"Providing a safe place for them to live will ensure that these men are not subjected to further human rights violations, and will help end the human rights scandal of Guantánamo itself."
It also said they welcomed EU leadership on the matter and suggested any JHA initiatives should focus on the physical and legal protection of detainees in order to help them rebuild their lives.
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