Guantanamo detainees suffer "cruel, inhumane" treatment - UN

The US government's treatment of inmates at Guantanamo Bay is "cruel, inhumane and degrading," an independent UN investigator has said.

The UN special rapporteur Fionnuala Ni Aolain said that the suffering of the 30 detainees at the US detention center is "profound and ongoing", according to DW.

Aolain's visit marked the first time a US administration has allowed a UN investigator to visit the facility since it was opened in 2002.

The Guantanamo detention centre was opened in 2002 by the then US President George W. Bush in response to the September 2001 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania that killed nearly 3,000 people.

The facility was opened to hold suspected Islamist terrorists without trial.

Aolain submitted a 23-page report to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday which said that while the 2001 attacks were "crimes against humanity," the use of torture against the alleged perpetrators violated international human rights laws.

She stressed that it deprived the victims and survivors of justice because information obtained by torture cannot be used at trials.

At one point, almost 800 people had been jailed at the detention center in Cuba.  Currently 30 men continue to remain incarcerated there. 

Aolain expressed concern that 19 of the 30 men, some of whom have been locked up for 20 years, have never been charged with a single crime.

Aolain said that when she visited the facility, she was met with a "heartfelt response" by the detained, some of whom had not seen an outsider for over 20 years.

She observed that many detainees showed evidence of "deep psychological harm and distress."

The report condemned the "near-constant surveillance, forced cell extractions, undue use of restraints and other arbitrary, non-human rights complaint operating procedures."

Aolain said that the facilities at Guantanamo "are not adequate to meet the complex and urgent mental and physical health issues of detainees" and pointed to the failure of the US government to provide torture rehabilitation programs.

She made a series of recommendations and said that even though "significant improvements" had been made, the facility must be closed immediately.

Meanwhile, the US, in a submission to the Human Rights Council, said that the investigator's findings "are solely her own" and that the US "disagrees in significant respects with many factual and legal assertions" in the report.

"The detainees live communally and prepare meals together; receive specialized medical and psychiatric care; are given full access to legal counsel; and communicate regularly with family members," the US statement said.

Previously, Bush's successor Barack Obama sought to close the detention center but failed due to opposition from Congress. Donald Trump wanted to keep the facility open.

The US said in a statement that the Biden administration has made "significant progress" toward closing the Guantanamo facility.