NEW REPORT EXPOSES CRUELTY OF SECRETIVE U.S. DETENTION OF REFUGEE FAMILIES AT GUANTANAMO BAY

IRAP, Sept. 19, 2024

"Today, the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) released a new report detailing the U.S. government’s practice of interdicting refugee families at sea and detaining them indefinitely in inhumane and unlawful conditions at the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba. Offshoring Human Rights: Detention of Refugees at Guantánamo Bay compiles testimony from refugees formerly detained at Guantánamo and from former U.S. government officials and advocates to provide an inside look at the hidden detention site. The report was featured in a New York Times exclusive alongside findings from a Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) investigation recommending children not be held at the base.

For decades, the United States has detained refugees encountered at sea at Guantánamo Bay in a little-known facility called the Guantánamo Migrant Operations Center (the “GMOC”). The Biden administration reportedly has considered using the facility for the mass detention of immigrants fleeing rapidly deteriorating security conditions in Haiti. The GMOC is distinct from the notorious military prison on the base, but both are used by the United States government to shield its actions from public scrutiny and accountability. 

“They make you feel as though to migrate is a crime,” said Alberto Corzo, a Cuban dissident journalist featured in the report who was held at Guantánamo with his wife and three children for months. 

Refugees held at the GMOC provided IRAP with firsthand accounts of inhumane conditions, mistreatment, and a complete lack of accountability at the offshore detention site, where the U.S. refuses to apply domestic standards related to immigration and detention. Conditions include undrinkable water and exposure to open sewage, inadequate schooling and medical care for children, and collective punishment of detained Cuban and Haitian refugees. 

IRAP began investigating detention conditions on the base after the organization received a tip from an official concerned about the physical and mental wellbeing of two refugee children detained at Guantánamo Bay without access to appropriate medical care. IRAP represented the family and fought for the right to establish confidential attorney-client communications with them. The family was only released once IRAP threatened to sue the government. 

“The United States government is flagrantly violating its own standards by indefinitely detaining refugee children and families outside the public eye,” said Deepa Alagesan, IRAP’s Interim Litigation Director. “The secretive detention of refugees at Guantánamo is yet another example of the U.S. government’s attempts to walk back from its human rights commitments. We demand the U.S. government shut down the migrant detention center at Guantánamo and ensure asylum seekers who arrive by sea can apply for protection in the United States.”

IRAP’s report includes five recommendations:

1. The U.S government should shut down the GMOC and discontinue its use as long-term detention center for refugees;
2. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should afford asylum seekers encountered at sea and on land the same due process protections historically associated with territorial asylum;
3. DHS should parole into the United States all refugees currently incarcerated at the GMOC and offer parole to those previously incarcerated there who now reside elsewhere;
4. Congress and agency oversight bodies should investigate rampant human rights abuses at the GMOC;
5. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) should cease involvement with the GMOC and end its immigrant detention operations worldwide. 

“IRAP’s report shows that, rather than contemplating expanding the use of Guantánamo Bay to detain Haitians who flee by sea, the administration should be working to close the Guantánamo Migrant Operations Center and to process all asylum seekers in a manner consistent with its human rights obligations, including those interdicted in the Florida Straits or Caribbean Sea,” said Guerline Jozef, Executive Director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance. “No matter by air or sea, the U.S. must immediately halt all forced returns of people to Haiti to meet its human rights obligations.”