16 Former Guantánamo Prisoners Condemn Trump’s Plan to Expand the Facility

London - Sixteen former Guantánamo Bay prisoners have united to condemn Donald Trump’s decision to radically expand the use of the detention at the site for migrants.

In a powerful collective statement, the former prisoners warn that expanding detention at Guantánamo Bay will perpetuate a cycle of injustice and cruelty. They assert that their mistreatment, enacted by the U.S. government and enabled by the complicity of allied western nations, has set a dangerous precedent, paving the way for these abuses to be now inflicted on thousands more.

To spare others from the suffering they endured, they urge the global community to condemn Trump’s decision and speak out against these injustices.

The letter in full: 

We, the undersigned, strongly condemn Donald Trump’s executive order to expand detention facilities for undocumented migrants at Guantánamo Bay.

Guantánamo is not just a prison—it is a place where law is warped, dignity is stripped, and suffering is hidden behind barbed wire. We lived it. We know the clang of metal doors, the weight of shackles, and the silence of a world that looked away. We know what it means to be caged without charge, without trial, without hope.

Now, the same system that stole years from our lives is expanding to imprison migrants, people seeking safety only to be sent to a place designed to strip them of their rights and exist outside the law. Guantánamo does not just allow abuse; it ensures cruelty. This executive order does not just enable injustice; it guarantees it.

Detaining migrants at Guantánamo denies them constitutional protections, trapping them in the same legal limbo we endured. This deliberate ambiguity enables abuse, just as it did with us. We know firsthand what happens when a system is designed to break people. This is not about security; it is about power, control, and using Guantánamo’s darkness to conceal yet another injustice.

This decision is a direct result of the impunity the U.S. has enjoyed for the crimes committed at Guantánamo. The failure to close the prison and reckon with its legacy has not only allowed these injustices to continue but has now enabled their expansion. Guantánamo should have been shut down long ago, yet instead, it is being revived for new victims.

We refuse to stay silent. We refuse to let others be swallowed by the same nightmare we endured. No one deserves to be thrown into a system built to erase them. We will not stop speaking. We will not stop fighting. We will not let Guantánamo’s horrors be repeated.

Close Guantánamo. End indefinite detention. Stop this order.

We are not just survivors of Guantánamo. We are witnesses. And we will not let the world forget.

In solidarity,

1. Mansoor Adayfi  (GTMO441) 
2. Moazzam Begg 
3. Ahemed Errachidi
4. Lakhdar Boumediene
5. Ghaibe Al-bihani
6. Hisham Sliti 
7. Abdellatif Nasr 
8. Sufyian d Barhoumi
9. Hussein Yafai
10. Abdul-Almalik Abud
11. Ayoob Mohammed 
12. Tarek Dergoul
13.  Mohsen Alaskar
14. Djamel Ameziane
15. Hammami Hedi
16. Omar Deghayes