Migrants sent by the United States to the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba earlier this year faced “abusive and inhumane detention conditions” that seriously affected their physical and mental health and even led to some suicide attempts, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch, which called on Washington to halt the possible transfer of people to these facilities.
Human Rights Watch says it interviewed 20 Venezuelan migrants who were held at Guantanamo in February for 11 to 16 days. They were part of the group of 177 Venezuelans who were sent there and later flown to Honduras before being deported to Venezuela.
According to Human Rights Watch, the migrants said they suffered human rights violations even before being sent to Guantanamo.
Some said they were detained after crossing the southern US border solely based on their nationality and tattoos, which immigration authorities used to link them to the criminal gang Tren de Aragua.
The Donald Trump administration has designated Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organization, but the Venezuelan government denies the migrants are members of the group, saying most have no criminal record and that those who do, have been brought to justice.
Human Rights Watch says other migrants reported being taken into custody immediately after attending appointments with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and not being told they would be transferred from US detention centers to Guantanamo Bay.
The US Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, rejected Human Rights Watch’s claims.
“Any claim that conditions are poor at ICE detention centers is false. All detainees are provided adequate food, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their families and attorneys. Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of those in our custody is a top priority at ICE,” the department said in an email to CNN.
In January, days after starting his second term as president, Trump announced plans to send 30,000 undocumented migrants to Guantanamo. So far, only a few hundred have been sent there, including the group of 177 Venezuelans.
The number of migrants detained at the base temporarily dropped to zero in March, when the US Navy’s Southern Command said 40 had been transferred to another location. This came as civil rights organizations were challenging the policy in court.
When asked on Thursday if there are still migrants at Guantanamo, the Department of Homeland Security told CNN that there are, without specifying the number or nationalities, and said the possibility of sending more migrants remains open.
Confinement and suicide attempts
Once at Guantanamo, Venezuelan migrants were not informed about their legal status and were held in confinement under conditions they described as harsh and unsanitary, the Human Rights Watch report says.
Most of the migrants interviewed by the organization said they were placed in a high-security unit known as Camp 6, where each person was detained in two-by-three-meter cells, with a concrete bed and a sink-and-toilet combination. According to testimonies, guards gave them a sheet and a pillow, and only a few received a mattress.
In both Camp 6 and another detention facility, migrants reported unsanitary conditions, poor hygiene and deteriorating infrastructure. One said his cell was dirty and had a strong smell of sewage.
The migrants also reported that they were only allowed to bathe every three days, and though they were fed three times a day, the food was insufficient and of poor quality, including spoiled rice and beans.
“I was hungry all the time, and my stomach hurt,” one told Human Rights Watch. “I arrived there weighing 78 kilos and returned to Venezuela weighing 52.”
The migrants said they spent 23 hours a day in the cells and were only allowed out to a courtyard for the remaining hour, without being able to communicate with each other. Confinement coupled with not knowing what would happen to them seriously affected their mental health, they recounted. One said he was so desperate he attempted suicide twice.
“No immigrant or asylum seeker who leaves their country in search of protection should be taken to a place like this,” said Juanita Goebertus, Human Rights Watch’s Americas director.
This is not the first time testimonies have been made public about migrants’ conditions at Guantanamo Bay.
In March, José Daniel Simancas Rodríguez, one of the 177 Venezuelans held there in February, told CNN about his experience.
“That’s what torture is, confinement. You are not alive. You are there and you are not alive, where you don’t know if it is day or night, you don’t really know the time, you are eating poorly, every day that you are there you are dying little by little. I cried every day during those 15 days,” he said at the time.
His testimony matches some of those described by the migrants Human Rights Watch spoke with, such as being isolated, having only a sheet and a pillow and receiving little food.
Faced with cases like these, Human Rights Watch urged the United States to halt the potential transfer of migrants to Guantanamo, a call that comes amid the Trump administration’s tightening of immigration policy and its plans to send people to third countries with which it has agreements, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Paraguay and Uganda.
Human Rights Watch’s Americas director said every migrant in detention must be treated with basic humanity. “This isn’t a privilege. It’s a fundamental right,” Goebertus said.
