Rights groups demand end to asylum seeker detentions in Guantanamo | Migration News [Video]

Dozens of rights groups have urged the United States government to stop holding asylum seekers at a detention facility at its Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba, claiming its conditions are illegal and inhumane.

The coalition of 125 rights organisations, led by the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) and Haitian Bridge Alliance, made their plea on Wednesday in an open letter to US President Joe Biden.

“We demand that your administration close the Guantanamo Migrant Operations Center (MOC) and process asylum seekers encountered at sea in a manner consistent with US human rights obligations,” the letter stated.

“The US government cannot continue to hide its diversion and mistreatment of asylum seekers by exiling them to Guantanamo, out of reach of their families, advocates, public consciousness – and the law,” it added.

The groups also called on the US government to stop intercepting sea-bound migrants from Haiti and sending them back to “war-like” conditions in their country, a fate shared by hundreds of …