Ex-Guantanamo Inmate Asks Argentina to Grant Asylum to Remaining Prisoners

In 2014, the governments of Uruguay and the US agreed on the transfer of six Guantanamo prisoners. Jihad Ahmed Diyab who was incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay for 12 years, was among the inmates who received asylum from Uruguay under the resettlement deal.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — A former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who travelled to Argentina this week, said Thursday that the purpose of his visit was to ask the country's authorities to grant asylum to some of the camp’s remaining inmates.

In 2014, the governments of Uruguay and the United States agreed on the transfer of six Guantanamo prisoners. Jihad Ahmed Diyab who was incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay for 12 years, was among the inmates who received asylum from Uruguay under the resettlement deal.

"I'll never forget the comrades who are there, and that's why I came here to fight," Diyab told Argentinian media. He added that he would try to persuade the Argentinian authorities to help the remaining inmates.

"For example, the Argentinian government could receive Guantanamo inmates on a humanitarian basis," he said.

The Guantanamo Bay prison was opened in 2002 in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States. Since then, the prison has been repeatedly criticized by human rights advocates citing its inhumane conditions of confinement, including torture.

In 2009, Obama issued an executive order to review the status of all individuals imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and to shut down the prison. The number of detainees has been nearly cut in half since 2009 but the facility is still open, with 122 detainees remaining imprisoned there.