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US yet to ask EU to take Guantanamo detainees

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The US has not formally asked the European Union (EU) to accept detainees from Guantanamo Bay following US President-elect Barack Obama's planned closing of the facility, according to a Thursday statement from European Commission vice president Jacques Barrot during the Informal Meeting of Ministers for Justice and Home Affairs in Prague. Closing the facility will require relocating the prisoners to avoid persecution from their home countries. Barrot has pledged to discuss the issue with US officials. Czech Interior Minister Ivan Langer said Thursday that the EU needs to know the expectations of the new US administration. Although Germany previously expressed an interest in accepting detainees, Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble rejected this notion on Thursday, saying that the prisoners are the responsibility of the US. On Sunday, activists in Prague held a protest to urge the EU to aid in the closing of the Guantanamo facility. Britain, Ireland and Portugal have all expressed an interest in accepting detainees although the EU has yet to reach a unified stance on the issue. Australia recently rejected a second request from the Bush administration to accept Guantanamo detainees.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on January 16, 2009 (boomark / email).