“ICRC Official Warns of Accelerated Aging in Guantánamo Bay Detainees”

A senior official of the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that prisoners held for years in the US Guantánamo Bay detention center in Cuba are showing signs of “accelerated aging”.

“We call on the US administration and Congress to work together to find appropriate and sustainable solutions to address these issues,” said Patrick Hamilton, ICRC Head of Delegation to the United States and Canada. “Action must be taken urgently,” he added.

Hamilton’s comments came after he visited Guantanamo in March after a 20-year hiatus. He said he was “astonished that those who are still detained today suffer from symptoms of accelerated aging, exacerbated by the cumulative effects of their experiences and the years they spent in detention.”

George W. Bush founded Guantanamo Bay

He demanded that the detainees receive adequate mental and physical health care and be allowed to communicate with their families frequently.

A Pentagon spokesman said the department was “currently reviewing the report”.

Former US President George W. Bush established the Guantanamo camp in 2002 to hold suspected foreign terrorists in the wake of the 2001 hijacked plane attacks on New York and the Pentagon headquarters that killed nearly 3,000 people.

The detainee became a symbol of US excesses in the “war on terror” due to harsh interrogation methods that critics said amounted to torture.

There were 40 detainees when Democratic President Joe Biden took office in 2021. The Biden administration says it wants to close the facility but has not presented a plan to do so.

Two brothers were returned to Pakistan in February, and there are still 30 prisoners. Hamilton urged Washington to resolve the fate of the detainees and called for taking action to deport the qualified ones to their countries.

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