Facing the Unknown, Guantánamo Detainee Chooses Captivity Over Release
As the last of 17 detainees approved for transfer from Guantánamo this month were prepared for release from the notorious prison on Monday, one man made a surprising choice. Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir, a 35- or 36-year-old Yemeni man who had been detained for 14 years, refused to leave. Bwazir was to be relocated to an undisclosed country in which he had no family or friends, and he was frightened, The New York Times reported.
Bwazir’s unusual decision to choose detention over freedom highlights a difficulty faced by many of the men who have been slowly released from Guantánamo. Pardiss Kebriaei, a senior staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights who represents multiple current and former detainees, told TakePart she has seen her clients struggle to acclimate to life after release.
“We’re elated when transfers happen, but there’s been no accountability for what they’ve lost and what they’ve been through,” Kebriaei said. “They land in countries they often have no familiarity with, no support system in.... There’s no real plan in place. They’re just sort of expected to rebuild.”
Having declined the resettlement after being approved for release by Guantánamo’s equivalent of a parole board, Bwazir must now wait until another country agrees to accept him—if he receives a future offer.
“I told him it was my view after all the work they did to land him a really good spot that he was likely to be there when the Obama administration leaves office next year, and God knows what’s going to happen then,” Bwazir’s lawyer, John Chandler, told The Guardian.
Kebriaei has closely followed two of her clients, a father and son, after their release from Guantánamo in 2009. Abdul Nasser Khantumani, the father, was transferred to Cape Verde, while his son, Muhammed, was transferred to Portugal. Portugal offers more resettlement support than some countries that accept Guantánamo detainees, according to Kebriaei, but Muhammed has nevertheless had a hard time adjusting.
“It’s been a struggle emotionally,” she said. “He’s been alone. His family in Syria was displaced—he’s isolated, struggling with the fear of being found out, the stigma, having to do this on his own.”
Abdul has had an even harder time, trying to learn Portuguese, and is further isolated having landed on another island after his seven years at Guantánamo. Two other men Kebriaei worked with, who have been transferred to Kazakhstan, are facing similar issues.
“They said they feel like they were dumped in a country, put in an apartment on their own without legal status,” Kebriaei said. “They have no clarity on if or when they could be reunified with their families, no meaningful mental health care. How are they supposed to be self-sufficient?”
Resources available to former detainees vary after their transfer. Saudi Arabia has a rehabilitation center for former detainees, while places like Cape Verde have no such programs.
Activists and lawyers pushing for the closure of Guantanamo and the end of indefinite detention without charge have been hesitant to raise the issue of resettlement support, Kebriaei said, because the challenge of getting them released in the first place has been so daunting. Still, she said, the government should work to balance both the transfers and the post-release issues because of “the real, continuing struggle and lack of accountability for the torture and years they’ve lost in prison.”
Related stories on TakePart:
• Guantanamo Bay Detainees Are Hunger-Striking for Change
• How Can a Farm Help Close Guantánamo?
• Fried Chicken and Feeding Tubes: Inside Guantánamo Bay’s Kitchen
Original article from TakePart
