In response to the Trump administration memorandum directing the U.S. government to prepare the Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba to detain migrants, the following statement is attributable to Michael Payne, deputy director of advocacy at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR):
“The dark history of Guantánamo is getting a new chapter as the Trump administration looks to send tens of thousands of immigrants to this infamous facility. Guantánamo is synonymous with torture. Its reputation is defined by inhumane and ill-treatment, medical neglect, impunity, and circumvention of U.S. law.
“The use of Guantánamo Bay to potentially detain some 30,000 migrants would reflect a drastic expansion of immigration detention, exposing people seeking asylum and other immigrants to serious risk of health harms.
“PHR has extensively documented the harms of U.S. immigration detention facilities, detailing prolonged solitary confinement, medical neglect, preventable deaths, and other abuse at immigration facilities across the country, under both Republican and Democrat administrations. Mass deportation of tens of thousands of immigrants to be held at Guantánamo would raise new threats of denials of health care as well as torture and ill-treatment. PHR research has found that detainees held at Guantánamo Bay lack adequate medical facilities, expertise, and capabilities, in violation of human rights.
“The lack of accountability for U.S. government torture at Guantánamo has led us to this moment. The facility should have been shuttered years ago and those responsible for the U.S. government’s systematic policy of psychological and physical torture held to account. Instead, the Trump administration can weaponize the facility to further its campaign of abuse against people seeking asylum and other immigrants.
“For decades, PHR has researched and advocated against U.S. torture practices, including at Guantánamo Bay. Through numerous investigations and reports, we have exposed the profound physical and psychological harms inflicted on U.S. detainees by these torture methods, including waterboarding, sleep deprivation, indefinite detention, solitary confinement, and force-feeding. PHR also documented and advanced accountability for medical professionals’ participation in the U.S. torture program.
“To now see Trump’s immigration agenda merge with the heinous history of Guantánamo should be a wake-up call to policymakers, clinicians, and the public that the U.S. government is scaling up its cruelty. Immigrants sent to Guantánamo will be at grave risk of further abuse, inhumane conditions, medical neglect, and legal limbo.
“While the use of Guantánamo for immigration detention purposes is not new, Trump’s actions could represent a major expansion of the facility. Reports have shown that prior to this executive order, migrants at Guantánamo have been ‘forced to wear blackout goggles during transport through the base; that their calls with lawyers are monitored; and that some areas are unfit for habitation, with rats and overflowing toilets.’
“PHR continues our decades-long calls to close Guantánamo.”
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a New York-based advocacy organization that uses science and medicine to prevent mass atrocities and severe human rights violations. Learn more here.