Tell President Biden: Don’t send Haitian asylum seekers to Guantánamo! | Physicians for Human Rights

Tell President Biden: Don’t send Haitian asylum seekers to Guantánamo!

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Last week, reports emerged that the Biden administration is considering holding Haitians who are encountered/interdicted at sea trying to reach the United States at the Guantánamo Bay military base in Cuba or expelling them to a third country.

With viable alternatives to detention available, there is no justifiable reason to use forced detention that continues compounding the trauma of refugees and asylum seekers fleeing unspeakable violence, disease, and persecution.

Please send a letter to President Biden urging his administration not to send Haitians to detention at Guantánamo Bay or subject them to third-country arrangements.

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Your Message
Don’t send Haitian asylum seekers to Guantánamo!
Dear President Biden,

I am deeply alarmed by a report that your National Security Council is considering sending and “holding” Haitian asylum seekers interdicted at sea by the United States to an offshore migrant detention center at the Guantánamo Bay military base in Cuba, a site associated with cruelty towards Haitians and, more recently, lawlessness, torture, and executive overreach. Likewise, asylum seekers should not be expelled to third countries to await for the adjudication of their asylum cases. I urge that your administration abandon this plan immediately.

With viable alternatives to detention available, there is no justifiable reason to continue compounding the trauma of refugees and asylum seekers fleeing unspeakable disease, hunger, and violence through forced detention.

It’s critical to prioritize protections for Haitian nationals, including halting returns and expulsions to Haiti given the life-threatening conditions there. Your administration must not under any circumstances send asylum seekers and migrants to the notorious facilities at Guantánamo Bay or any other offshore detention locations. The United States should also immediately create swift, meaningful, and substantial safe pathways to protection for Haitians, and provide access to the asylum system in the United States without discrimination and regardless of whether people travel by land, sea, or air in search of refuge.

Haitians should not be sent to other offshore detention locations or subjected to third-country arrangements that violate refugee and human rights law.

Sincerely,

[First Name] [Last Name]