Abstract
In early December 2014, six former “detainees” were transferred from a US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Uruguay following reclassification as “refugees” (Goldman 2014). After a decade of imprisonment in the US military detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay, Ahmed Adnan Ahjam, Ali HuseinShaaban, Abd al Hadi Omar Mahmoud Faraj, Abu Wa’elDhiab, Mohammed Abdullah Tahamuttan and Abdul Bin Mohammed Bin AbessOurgy obtained permission to reside in Uruguay. The reclassification and transfer out of detainment resulted from diplomatic negotiations held in secret, and received final approval from officials of the US Pentagon, the key authority in such matters at present. This status change from “detainees” to “refugees” and, now, to asylees in Uruguay took immense legal and political pressure. Specifically, the feasibility of the transfer arose from a confluence of factors: (1) from the actions of the organization Reprieve which provided ongoing legal and activist pressures on behalf of those detained; (2) a change in Uruguayan political climate following a crucial election, after which political figures acted to provide respite in extending refugee status; and (3) members of the Obama administration discredited false information originally used to justify the detention of the six individuals following the attacks on US soil in September 2001. Are societies such as Uruguay new role models in showing hospitality to refugees and immigrants?
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Matheis, C., Bauder, H. (2016). Introduction: Possibility, Feasibility and Mesolevel Interventions in Migration Policy and Practice. In: Bauder, H., Matheis, C. (eds) Migration Policy and Practice. Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137503817_1
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