PARIS: Dozens of US and international human rights organizations are decrying the Trump administration’s plans to establish a migrant “camp” for fleeing Cubans at the Guantanamo Bay military base if the island nation’s crisis worsens under pressure from the US, according to a letter to members of Congress on Friday.
The 85 groups plan to submit the joint letter, exclusively shared with the Guardian, to US senators and House representatives, expressing their “profound concern” with comments made last month by a top Department of Defence commander, and describing any prospect of further migrant detention at the base as “deeply troubling and unacceptable”.
The commander told Congress last month that in the event of what one Republican senator described as “any humanitarian crisis” in Cuba, the Pentagon would “set up a camp” at the Guantanamo Bay US base to “deal with” migrants.
The United Nations already warned in February that Cuba could be on the brink of a humanitarian “collapse” following Donald Trump’s attempts to block oil supplies from reaching the island and the US president repeatedly threatening Cuba’s communist government.
“Guantanamo should be a relic of the past,” the organisations’ letter to the lawmakers reads. “We call on you to act without delay to ensure not another dollar goes towards the detention facilities at Guantánamo, ensure the base is never again used for unlawful mass detention of any group of people, and end the coercive and punitive policy of sanctions and the embargo driving the humanitarian crisis.”
The letter has been signed by groups including the Centre for Constitutional Rights, which has represented dozens of detainees held at Guantánamo during America’s so-called war on terror since the 2001 terrorist attacks on the US on September 11. The less well-known migrant detention facilities are separate from the terrorism-related detention center at the base.
“Both have long been known for inhumane conditions, mistreatment, and due process violations,” Friday’s letter states.
