Guantanamo Detainees May Face Worse Fate When Freed

Hard to imagine a worse fate than being wrongly imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. But as if being wrongfully detained in the U.S.'s offshore human-rights loophole isn't enough, the U.S. Military is now "freeing" former terrorist suspects back to countries where there is clear danger to their lives.

Thousands of U.S. citizens have protested the mere existence of the Guantanamo detention center (most recently, in my beloved home town of San Francisco). But these forced deportations take Guantanamo's human rights abuses to a whole new level. As with any deportation, a detainee has the right to protest that the country of repatriation is not safe. The 1994 Convention Against Torture is a legal safeguard that protects any forcible return to a country with a proven track record for abuse that may affect the safety of the prisoner in question.

Yet since Obama's inauguration (remember when he promised to shut Guantanamo down?), two freed Guantanamo detainees have been forcibly transferred to Algeria on separate occasions, despite their avid protests that their lives would be at risk once they touched down on Algerian soil. Mohammed, the most recent prisoner to be sentenced home, was awaiting the Supreme Court's ruling on his appeal for a safe third country transfer when he was loaded onto a plane and sent to Algeria anyway.

Let's face it: after years of wrongful imprisonment in Guantanamo (the U.S. Federal Judge ruled that he was being unlawfully held in custody), Mohammed would jump at any opportunity to bid the oh-so-hospitable U.S. adieu. Unless, that his, he feared his fate in Algeria would be worse than his life in a cinderblock cell and rampant human rights abuses at the hands of his captors. You'd have to be really afraid, I'd imagine, to not just take the one-way ticket out of Cuba and never look back.

I never imagined saying this, but these prisoners may be better of at Guantanamo than being sent back to Algeria. Now that's something.

Tell the U.S. Military to stop deporting Guantanamo detainees to countries where they may face further human rights abuses. It's the least they could do.

Photo Credit: U.S. Department of Defense