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"We're calling on the U.S. administration and Congress to work
together to find adequate and sustainable solutions to address
these issues," said Patrick Hamilton, the ICRC's head of
delegation for the United States and Canada.
"Action should be taken as a matter of priority."
Hamilton's comments came after a visit to the facility in March
following a 20-year hiatus. He said he was "struck by how those
who are still detained today are experiencing the symptoms of
accelerated ageing, worsened by the cumulative effects of their
experiences and years spent in detention".
He called for detainees to receive adequate mental and physical
health care and more frequent family contact.
The U.S. Defense Department "is currently reviewing the report,"
a Pentagon spokesperson said.
The Guantanamo camp was established by Republican President
George W. Bush in 2002 to house foreign terrorism suspects
following the 2001 hijacked plane attacks on New York and the
Pentagon that killed about 3,000 people.
It came to symbolize the excesses of the U.S. "war on terror"
because of harsh interrogation methods that critics have said
amounted to torture. There were 40 detainees when President Joe
Biden, a Democrat, took office in 2021. The Biden administration
has said it wants to close the facility but has not presented a
plan for doing so.
The repatriation of two brothers to Pakistan occurred in
February, and 30 prisoners remain. Hamilton urged Washington to
resolve the fate of the detainees, urging action to transfer out
those who were eligible.
(Reporting by Emma Farge and Matt Spetalnick in Washington;
Editing by Nick Macfie and William Mallard)
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