Trump orders migrant centre at Guantanamo amid controversy
Donald Trump has signed an order to establish a centre for migrant criminals at the American military base in Guantanamo. The centre is intended to accommodate up to 30,000 people.
Trump announced that he has instructed the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security to build a centre for migrants that can house 30,000 people.
"Most people don’t even know about it. We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. This will double our capacity immediately," Trump stated. "Some of them are so bad, we don’t even trust other countries to hold them, and we don’t want them coming back, so we’re going to send them out to Guantánamo," Trump added.
Details of the order signed on Wednesday have yet to be disclosed. It remains unknown who will be held there, what their status will be, or how they will be able to leave the centre.
The gates of Guantanamo
It is worth recalling that Guantanamo houses a prison administered by the United States, located within a United States Navy base. This notoriously infamous site has been used for years to detain individuals suspected of having any connections with Islamic terrorists.
Initially, it served as a detention centre for jihadists and suspected terrorists from countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq, who could pose a threat. This decision was justified by the so-called war on terror initiated after the 9/11 attacks. Those suspected of being members of Al-Qaeda or Taliban fighters ended up there.
Under President George W. Bush's military order regarding the "detention, treatment and trial" of non-US citizens during the war on terror, individuals could be held there indefinitely, without charges or trial. They were subjected to torture and detained in appalling conditions. Most of them, as it was later determined, had no connections to terrorists, nor any hostile intentions towards the USA.
